Photonics Simulation Software Startup EMode Photonix Raises $1 Million Pre-Seed

Insider Brief

• EMode Photonix raised $1 million in pre-seed funding led by Ground State Ventures, with participation from Harlow Capital Management, to expand its photonics simulation software business.
• The company says its software simulates nonlinear photonic circuits 1,000 times faster, helping engineers design devices for frequency conversion and quantum light generation.
• The Boulder-based startup will use the funding to expand product development and sales as it prepares an enterprise offering for complete photonic integrated circuit design.

PRESS RELEASE — EMode Photonix (EMode, Inc.), a startup delivering powerful simulation tools to allow novel photonics technologies for quantum computers to be developed faster, has raised a $1 million pre-seed round. The round was led by Ground State Ventures, with participation from Harlow Capital Management.

Integrated photonics is one of the fastest growing and most exciting areas of technology currently. Traditionally developed for telecommunications, it is finding increasing use in sensing, computing (see Nvidia investing billions in partnerships with photonics companies to replace copper wire), and especially quantum technologies.

Traditionally photonics engineers could rely on existing simulations of linear photonics, which is sufficient for simple light routing circuits. However, the next generation of photonic devices exploit non-linear photonics, which not only allows one to bridge and generate different frequencies of light, but even enables the conversion of classical to quantum light.