KDROC

kdroc.com ↗ ·Madrid ·Series B

KDROC (Knowledge Development for Rugged Optical Communications) is a Madrid-based fabless semiconductor company designing optoelectronics and integrated circuits for multi-gigabit optical communications in harsh environments — automotive, industrial and medical — offered as ASICs or licensable IP for SoCs. It is the sister/successor entity of KDPOF (Knowledge Development for POF, S.L.), founded in 2010 by Carlos Pardo and Rubén Pérez-Aranda; since July 2024 both operate commercially under the unified brand "KD" at kd.tech. Customers include automotive OEMs such as Mercedes-Benz, it leads IEEE 802.3 and ISO 21111 optical standardisation work, and it opened a prototyping lab plus chip assembly-and-test plant in Tres Cantos backed by roughly €28M of European Commission funding — Spain's first automotive chip assembly facility, expected to create up to 60 jobs.

Founded

2010

Founders

Total funds raised

—

Rounds

Investors

SectorsSemiconductors, Automotive, Optical Communications, Industrial, Deeptech Start-up MapDeeptech & Hardware › Semiconductors, compute & AI infrastructure

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Founders

Carlos Pardo

Co-Founder, President & CEO

Also at KD →

Rubén Pérez-Aranda Alonso

Co-Founder and former CTO (left in 2025; now at Acacia)

Also at KD →

Global models 5

Celestial AI

United States · www.celestial.ai ↗

Fabless designer of optical interconnect chips and licensable photonic IP for multi-gigabit data links inside other companies' SoCs and systems.

~$590MComparable

Ayar Labs

United States · ayarlabs.com ↗

Fabless company selling optical I/O chiplets for high-bandwidth optical communication as components integrated into customers' chips.

~$370MComparable

Kandou

Switzerland · www.kandou.com ↗

Fabless high-speed wired connectivity company that sells both SerDes/interconnect chips and licensable IP. This is the same ASIC-plus-IP-licensing model as KDROC.

~$200MComparable

Valens Semiconductor

Israel · www.valens.com ↗

Fabless maker of multi-gigabit in-vehicle and industrial connectivity chipsets that sells to automotive OEMs and Tier-1s and co-leads a connectivity standard, much as KDROC does with IEEE.

~$190M (pre-IPO)Comparable

Eliyan

United States · www.eliyan.com ↗

Fabless start-up that licenses high-speed interconnect PHY IP and sells chiplets for integration into customers' SoCs.

~$120MComparable

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Wooptix

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+19 more →

Notes: Most funded first

Investors 2

Open as list →

Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico y la Innovación

Funding rounds

No announced rounds on record.

News 8

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Published	Article
2026-06-09	Hinge Technology Integrates KD7251 Automotive Camera System for Next-Gen In-Vehicle Networks ↗ Electronics Media 2026-06-09
2026-02-04	Vector Expands VN5650 for Multi-Gigabit Optical Ethernet Testing ↗ ENGtechnica 2026-02-04
2025-07-17	CEO Interview with Carlos Pardo of KD ↗ SemiWiki 2025-07-17
2025-06-27	KD teams for first 10GBASE-AU camera with optical fibre connectivity ↗ eeNews Europe 2025-06-27
2025-06-11	KD Presents New KD7251 Transceiver ↗ ECOC Exhibition 2025-06-11
2025-05-13	KD Integrates Optical Ethernet Transceiver into ZF Group's ProAI System ↗ Embedded Computing Design 2025-05-13
2025-01-28	Keysight and KD Partner to Advance Multigigabit Optical Automotive Ethernet Testing with New Signal Analysis Capability ↗ Keysight Newsroom 2025-01-28
2024-07-12	High-speed network technology KDPOF becomes KD ↗ All About Industries 2024-07-12