Photonics startup Wave Photonics has raised £4.5 million ($5.8m) in a seed investment round to commercialize its on-chip photonics designs.

Co-led by the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund (UKI2S) and Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, it also included participation from the Redstone and QAI Ventures’ Quantum Fund, Kyra Ventures, and Deep Tech Labs.

The company also received an additional £900,000 ($1.1m) in grants from EIC and Innovate UK, bringing its total funding to date to £5.4m ($6.9m).

Based in Cambridge, UK, the integrated photonics startup was founded in 2021 by James Lee and Matthew Anderson, both Cambridge Quantum Photonics PhDs, and Mateusz Kubica, a former VP in quantitative finance.

Its focus is the development of on-chip photonics designs for technologies including quantum, sensors, and data center applications, with the hope that its tools and IP will ultimately reduce the photonic product development timeline.

In a statement, Wave Photonics said it will use the funding to take its technology out of a research setting and into a commercial foundry.

Writing on LinkedIn, co-founder Anderson wrote: “It's been an incredible journey so far and I'm very proud of the amazing Wave Photonics team! We've had fantastic support from our investors and angels, and we're excited to be building the next stage of the company and further growing our team.”