€4m · Seed · Deeptech · Partille, Sweden
Partille-based Solinide Photonics has raised €4m in Seed funding, co-led by Navigare Ventures and PSV Hafnium, with Chalmers Ventures, Turbine Capital, Norrsken Evolve and Almi Greentech Fund participating, according to the company announcement. The Chalmers University of Technology spin-out will use the capital to expand its engineering and commercial teams, strengthen in-house prototyping and prepare its silicon nitride photonics platform for manufacturing in Europe.
Solinide is tackling a less visible constraint in AI infrastructure: moving data between processors without letting optical interconnect power, cost and physical footprint rise at the same pace. Conventional systems can use arrays of discrete lasers to create multiple wavelength channels. Solinide's microcomb technology is designed to generate dozens of precise wavelengths from a single chip, allowing more data to travel through each fibre while reducing the number of light sources required.
From laser racks to a manufacturable optical source
The commercial proposition depends on more than laboratory efficiency. Solinide says it has demonstrated the performance required for data-centre links and integrated its technology into a rack-mounted system. Its company profile reports more than 60% optical conversion efficiency, sub-0.03 dB/cm propagation loss and 28 wavelength channels above 0 dBm in its current silicon nitride process. These are company-reported results, and the next hurdle is turning them into repeatable hardware that customers can qualify and deploy.
That is why the use of funds matters. More prototyping capacity and manufacturing readiness can shorten the loop between chip design, packaging, system testing and customer feedback. Solinide also plans to deepen work with strategic industry partners. For a component that has to fit existing optical architectures, those relationships can shape specifications and qualification before higher-volume production begins.
LumiCOMB creates a first commercial step
Eleven days after the financing announcement, Solinide launched LumiCOMB, a 2U rack-mounted optical frequency-comb generator available to order in O-band and C-band versions. The product is aimed initially at photonics and systems R&D teams, giving researchers and developers a turnkey alternative to fragile, hand-tuned comb setups. The company says it can produce up to 24 usable lines above -5 dBm in the O-band at 200 GHz spacing.
LumiCOMB does not by itself prove deployment inside production AI data centres. It does, however, give Solinide a way to sell a complete instrument, gather operating feedback and support customers while it works toward more integrated and co-packaged implementations. The €4m round therefore finances both a near-term product commercialisation test and the longer manufacturing path for the underlying photonic chips.
Sources checked:
Solinide funding announcement · Tech.eu report · Solinide company profile · Solinide LumiCOMB launch · Tech.eu Funding Explorer
Updated 12 October 2026 — added Solinide's subsequent LumiCOMB product launch.
