Company · Deeptech & Hardware

Alcyon Photonics

alcyonphotonics.com ↗ ·Madrid ·Seed

Alcyon Photonics is a Madrid-based deeptech startup that designs fabrication-ready, foundry-validated photonic integrated circuit (PIC) IP building blocks, licensing photonic design libraries and offering design/simulation/layout services to accelerate industrial adoption of integrated photonics. Founded in 2018 as a CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) spin-off built on subwavelength grating (SWG) technology, it serves datacom, telecom, sensing, space/defense, quantum, and healthcare applications, and partners with foundries including Tower Semiconductor and GlobalFoundries.

Founded

2018

Founders

News

Rounds

Investors

SectorsPhotonics, Semiconductors, Deeptech, Integrated Circuit IP Start-up MapDeeptech & Hardware › Semiconductors, compute & AI infrastructure

Profile updated 27 Jul 2026

Founders

Aitor Villafranca Velasco

Founder

Global models 5

PsiQuantum

United States · www.psiquantum.com ↗

Builds fault-tolerant quantum computers on a silicon photonics fabrication platform, the same underlying photonic-IC manufacturing approach Alcyon licenses IP for.

$2.32BComparable

Ayar Labs

United States · ayarlabs.com ↗

Designs photonic IP (optical I/O chiplets) for co-packaging into chips, closely matching Alcyon's model of licensing photonic integrated circuit building blocks.

$872MComparable

Lightmatter

United States · lightmatter.co ↗

Photonic chip design company building silicon photonics-based compute and interconnect products, same core photonic-IC design/IP model as Alcyon.

$850MComparable

Celestial AI

United States · www.celestial.ai ↗

Develops a photonic interconnect fabric using integrated photonic IP for data center chips, paralleling Alcyon's photonic IC IP licensing approach.

$515MComparable

Ranovus

Canada · ranovus.com ↗

Designs photonic integrated circuits and IP for optical interconnects, a direct model match to Alcyon's PIC IP business at a smaller scale.

$71.3MComparable

Investors 3

EIC Fund (European Innovation Council)

eic.ec.europa.eu

Investor Luxembourg

Funding rounds 1

Seed · €1.5M

Alcyon Photonics, a startup designing photonic integrated circuits for AI, quantum computing, communications and aerospace, closed a €1.5M r…

2025-02-18

News & media 6

Published	Article
2026-04-16	Sofics and Alcyon Photonics Partner to Support Next-Generation Photonic Systems ↗ Optica
2025-10-24	Alcyon Photonics: Making Photonic Design as Scalable and Reliable as Electronics ↗ TechTour
2025-06-26	Alcyon Photonics: integrating light to accelerate the future ↗ AESEMI
2025-02-18	Alcyon Photonics cierra una ronda de €1,5M cubierta por CDTI Innovación, BeAble y EIC Fund ↗ Webcapitalriesgo
2024-10-10	Alcyon Photonics recognized as one of the 101 most innovative and impactful companies in Spain by ENISA and the ADR Forum ↗ Instituto de Óptica (CSIC)
2020-11-05	Alcyon Photonics facilita la adopción de circuitos fotónicos integrados ↗ SECPHO