€16 million investment boosts NcodiN’s development of “world’s smallest laser” for AI chips
Paris-based NcodiN, a DeepTech startup innovating AI hardware infrastructure, has raised €16 million in Seed funding to enable scalable, energy-efficient computing through its proof-of-concept nanolasers.
The round was led by German VC firm MIG Captial through its MIF Fonds 17 and 18, with participation from Maverick Silicon, PhotonVentures, and Verve Ventures – as well as continued support from historical investors Elaia, Earlybird, and OVNI.
Dr Francesco Manegatti, CEO and co-founder of NcodiN , commented: “This funding marks a pivotal milestone for NcodiN. We are delivering the missing piece for the industry’s most pressing challenge: enabling extremely high memory bandwidth to power the AI factories of tomorrow. Our technology unlocks wafer-scale superchips by providing the most energy-efficient interconnects for networking across tens of chiplets – an essential component in the architectures everyone is chasing.”
In 2025, European DeepTech funding has included several hardware-focused rounds, such as Arago in France securing €22.1 million to commercialise its photonic processor, Orange Quantum Systems in the Netherlands raising €12 million to scale quantum-chip testing infrastructure, and yasp in Germany collecting €4.2 million to advance its AI model optimisation compiler stack, totalling approximately €38.3 million across the segment.
Against this backdrop, NcodiN’s Seed round sits within a clear trend of investor attention shifting towards foundational AI-infrastructure technologies, with France appearing prominently through both NcodiN and Arago.
“As new generations of GPUs and AI accelerators emerge to keep pace with rapidly evolving GenAI algorithms, NcodiN is laying the photonic foundation that makes them possible,” adds Manegatti.
Founded in 2023, NcodiN is a DeepTech startup developing photonic interposers with integrated nanolasers to overcome the speed and energy limits of traditional semiconductor hardware.
At the core of NConnect’s technology is the “world’s smallest laser“, enabling dense integration on silicon and unprecedented scalability without requiring disruptive changes to processor architectures.
The company has demonstrated proof-of-concept nanolasers with energy efficiency below 0.1 pJ/bit, integrated nanodetectors, and full optical links – all on silicon. In parallel, NcodiN established an independent cleanroom that now serves as a hub for rapid prototyping and joint development with industry partners.
Validating its technological foundation, NcodiN has established network of strategic advisors, welcoming Eli Yablonovitch – widely regarded as the father of photonic crystals and co-founder of companies such as Luxtera, Ethertronics, Luminescent and Alta Devices – as well as Peter De Dobbelaere, Vice President at Cisco, who played a central role in Luxtera’s rise as the first Silicon Photonics success story.
Dr Oliver Kahl, Principal at MIG Capital, adds: “NcodiN is working at the centre of the AI infrastructure market , a sector experiencing rapid, significant growth driven by the surging demand for generative AI, the proliferation of big data, advancements in specialised hardware like GPUs, and the widespread adoption of cloud computing.
“The company’s ambitious team is shaping and empowering the future of computing to drive innovation across multiple industries. We couldn’t be happier to support them.”
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