French Photonics Startup NcodiN Raises €16 Million to Develop World’s Smallest Laser for AI Chips
NcodiN, a French deep-tech startup, secured €16 million in a seed round to advance development of the world’s smallest laser technology, targeting revolutionary improvements in AI chip energy efficiency and bandwidth for data centers.
Paris-based photonics startup NcodiN has raised €16 million in a heavily oversubscribed seed funding round to accelerate the development of the world’s smallest laser for AI chips. The deep-tech company pioneers nanolaser technology integrated into photonic interposers, addressing critical bottlenecks in data centers supporting AI workloads.
NcodiN’s breakthrough laser technology promises to outpace traditional copper interconnects, which currently limit AI systems due to speed, energy, and scalability constraints—a challenge often dubbed the “copper wall.” By harnessing chip-scale optical interposers embedded with integrated nanolasers, NcodiN aims to dramatically increase data transmission bandwidth while slashing power consumption, paving the way for the next generation of “wafer-scale” superchips.
The €16 million seed round, led by MIG Capital and joined by Maverick Silicon, PhotonVentures, Verve Ventures, and existing investors Elaia and Earlybird, will fund NcodiN’s transition from research and development to industrial-scale commercialization. The startup plans to establish a CMOS pilot line for manufacturing on 300mm wafers and expand its team and supply chain to support large-scale deployments.
Francesco Manegatti, CEO of NcodiN, stated, “As new generations of GPUs and AI accelerators emerge to keep pace with GenAI’s rapid evolution, NcodiN is laying the photonic foundation needed to build efficient, scalable AI factories of tomorrow.”
With proven prototypes demonstrating record-breaking energy efficiency below 0.1 picojoules per bit and integrated full optical links on silicon, NcodiN’s innovation is a promising leap forward in overcoming the physical and technical limits of current AI hardware infrastructure.
This funding milestone sets the stage for NcodiN to become a foundational player in the rapidly evolving landscape of AI and high-performance computing, offering a greener, faster, and more scalable solution for future data centers powering global AI growth.
