Zürich-based photonics startup Aylight has raised €4.5 million in pre-seed funding to move its chip-scale multiwavelength laser technology from research into first prototypes.
The round was co-led by Elaia and Swisscom Ventures, with participation from Verve Ventures and Plug and Play. Aylight said the funding will support prototype manufacturing in a semiconductor foundry and the expansion of its R&D team.
Founded in 2025 out of ETH Zürich research, Aylight is developing lasers designed for AI data-center optical interconnects and high-precision FMCW sensing. Its core technology, a frequency-modulated comb architecture, is designed to generate multiple precisely spaced wavelengths from a single chip, a capability that could help address growing bandwidth and efficiency demands in optical infrastructure.
The investment highlights continued investor interest in photonics and hardware technologies tied to AI infrastructure, particularly as data movement becomes a more pressing constraint in next-generation computing systems.
The round was co-led by Elaia and Swisscom Ventures, with participation from Verve Ventures and Plug and Play. Aylight said the funding will support prototype manufacturing in a semiconductor foundry and the expansion of its R&D team.
Founded in 2025 out of ETH Zürich research, Aylight is developing lasers designed for AI data-center optical interconnects and high-precision FMCW sensing. Its core technology, a frequency-modulated comb architecture, is designed to generate multiple precisely spaced wavelengths from a single chip, a capability that could help address growing bandwidth and efficiency demands in optical infrastructure.
The investment highlights continued investor interest in photonics and hardware technologies tied to AI infrastructure, particularly as data movement becomes a more pressing constraint in next-generation computing systems.