Scintil Photonics raises €13.5M in second round financing led by Robert Bosch Venture Capital

Funds will enable fabless silicon photonics company to accelerate CMOS-based industrialization and global commercialization of its III-V Augmented Silicon Photonic ICs for optical interconnects

Grenoble, France, June 21, 2022 – Scintil Photonics, a supplier of advanced silicon photonic integrated circuits with monolithically integrated lasers and optical amplifiers, today announces it has secured €13.5M ($14.4M) in second round funding. Robert Bosch Venture Capital (RBVC) led the round, with historic shareholders Supernova Invest, Innovacom and Bpifrance, through its Digital Venture fund, reinvesting to bring the company’s total funding to €17.5M ($18.8M), to date.

Scintil Photonics’ optical communications aim to significantly enhance traditional high-speed system and chip interconnections. The company’s Augmented Silicon Photonic Integrated Circuit (IC) product is a single-chip solution consisting of active and passive components, all made entirely from standard silicon photonics processes available at CMOS commercial foundries, and where III-V optical amplifiers and lasers are integrated on the backside of advanced silicon photonic circuits. This unique all-in-one integration of amplifiers and lasers enables ultrahigh-speed communications, due to extensive parallelization and higher bit rates, e.g., from 800 G to 3,200 Gbit/sec with very compact chips.

A fabless company, Scintil Photonics will use the funds to take its industrialization program to the next level and speed up the global commercialization of its products that boost communications in data centers, High-Performance Computing (HPC) and 5G networks. Scintil Photonics’ products are unique in providing optical communication applications with higher bit rates, and scalable, cost-effective and mass-producible PIC (Photonic Integrated Circuits) solutions. This enables the multi-billion USD electronics industry to overcome the end of Moore’s Law with the integration of very high-speed optical communications.

“Scintil Photonics is delighted to welcome Robert Bosch Venture Capital, a leading global investor; this is a great opportunity for us to boost our global footprint. We are also grateful for the support of our first customers, to whom we have shipped or are currently shipping product prototypes, as well as our trusted suppliers and employees,” said Sylvie Menezo, president and CEO of Scintil Photonics. “Together, including the significant contributions in this round from our existing investors, this demonstrates the major progress we have made over the past three years in taking our disruptive photonic circuit technology to the fast-growing market segments of optical interconnects in 5G, Cloud HPC and datacom.”

“Scintil Photonics’ monolithic integration of III-V Lasers into silicon photonic chips is a key enabler for next-generation telecom, datacom and sensing,” says Ingo Ramesohl, managing director at RBVC. “The CMOS-compatible process allows for higher design freedom, lower losses and a smaller footprint at low cost. We are excited to partner with Scintil Photonics as it uniquely unlocks further miniaturization and integration of Photonic Integrated Circuits.”

“We have supported Scintil since its inception and believe that the company’s capability to integrate lasers in advanced silicon photonics is second to none currently on offer for the industry,” said Marion Aubry, investment director of the Bpifrance Digital Venture team.

“We are delighted to strengthen our continuous support to Scintil Photonics as the company reaches a new dimension. As a multistage deep tech specialist, we are impressed by its technological success and the team’s ability to transform that into a commercial success. Scintil Photonics products are tackling the energy efficiency issue in heavy loaded data center applications and 5G infrastructures. We are proud to contribute to this achievement,” said Vincent Deltrieu, partner and member of the board at Innovacom. 

“Our continuous engagement with Scintil Photonics is another example of how Supernova Invest partners with game-changing deep tech start-ups to deliver to industry highly innovative and fast-to-market solutions, while reducing the cost of mass-produced fully integrated photonic circuits,” said Pierre-Emmanuel Struyven, president and managing partner at Supernova Invest.

About RBVC

Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH (RBVC) is the corporate venture capital company of the Bosch Group, a leading global supplier of technology and services. RBVC invests worldwide in innovative start-up companies at all stages of their development. Its investment activities focus on technology companies working in areas of business of current and future relevance for Bosch, above all, automation and electrification, energy efficiency, enabling technologies and healthcare systems. RBVC also invests in services and business models that are relevant to the above-mentioned areas of business. Furthermore, RBVC enables co-innovation between Bosch and start-ups through the Open Bosch Program.

www.rbvc.com

About Bpifrance and its Digital Venture team

Bpifrance’s equity investments are carried out by Bpifrance Investissement. Bpifrance finances companies – at every stage of their development – in credit, collateral and equity. Bpifrance supports them in their innovation projects and internationally. Bpifrance also ensures their export activity through a wide range of products. Consulting, university, networking and acceleration programs for start-ups, SMEs and ETIs are also part of the offer proposed to entrepreneurs. Thanks to Bpifrance and its 50 regional offices, entrepreneurs benefit from a close, unique and efficient contact to help them face their challenges.

Bpifrance Digital Venture is the VC team within Bpifrance, dedicated to digital and tech companies aiming to become global leaders in their market. It focuses on seed and series A/B stages. With €700 million under management, the team has backed 110+ companies and had 28 exits since 2011. Amongst the investments made by the Bpifrance Digital Venture team are Teads (bought by Altice), Talentsoft (Cegid), Netatmo (Legrand), Meilleurs Agents (Axel Springer), Balyo, Manomano, Evaneos, Openclassrooms, Cardiologs Technologies (Philips), Klaxoon, Livestorm and Shippeo.

www.Bpifrance.fr – Follow us on Twitter: @Bpifrance – @BpifrancePresse – @BpifranceDV   

About Innovacom

Innovacom is a venture capital pioneer in France. It has invested nearly €1 billion since 1988, supported more than 300 highly innovative digital and technology start-ups, and participated in more than 150 trade sales and 20 stock market listings. The team, with its long-lasting experience in cutting-edge technologies, has recently contributed to numerous disruptive successes in a wide array of sectors (telco, health, mobility, energy etc.) and provides Innovacom with a solid track-record including unicorns such as Heptagon or Soitec. As of today, Innovacom supports high-potential deep tech and innovative industrial projects through fundings and guidance. Innovacom and the Turenne Group have jointly created, with €1.4 billion under management, one of the leading independent private equity firms in France. 

www.innovacom.com

About Supernova Invest

Supernova Invest is a cutting-edge venture capital firm with a leading position in the French deep tech investment market. It manages and advises five capital funds for a total of €400 million AUM. Supernova Invest specializes in breakthrough technologies, developing start-ups in industry, health, energy & environment and the digital technology sectors. The team has 20 years of technology investment experience and has provided more than 100 of the most innovative companies in their segments with support and guidance from creation through to full maturity. Supernova Invest has a strong partnership with both the CEA (the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission) and Amundi (the European leader in asset management). 

www.supernovainvest.com

About Scintil Photonics

Scintil Photonics develops and markets Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs): integrated laser arrays, multiples of 800 Gbit/sec transmitters and receivers, tunable transmitters and receivers, as well as optical I/O for near chip and chip-chip communication). Its circuits are fabricated on a proprietary III/V-Augmented Silicon Photonics technology manufactured in a multi-customer silicon foundry. For accelerated adoption, the company also delivers the control electronics and reference package implementations. Based in Grenoble, France, and Toronto, Canada, Scintil is currently taking its innovative product to industrial level as it gears up for mass production.

www.scintil-photonics.com