Amsterdam-based Optics11 secures €25 million EIB loan to strengthen Europe’s subsea and energy security

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed a €25 million venture debt financing agreement with Amsterdam-based Optics11, a DeepTech scale-up that builds advanced fibre optic sensing solutions. 

The Dutch company plans to use this capital for research and development on its technologies for civilian and defence applications. It aims to accelerate the productisation and Europe-wide adoption of its monitoring technology to protect critical infrastructure, particularly in underwater environments and high-voltage power grids.

“Disruptions to subsea infrastructure, maritime trade or failures in high-voltage grids have immediate and far-reaching consequences on our society. With this EIB financing, Optics11 accelerates the deployment of unique fibre-optic sensing technologies that protect the infrastructure so essential to Europe’s security and energy resilience,”  said Optics11 CEO Paul Heiden. 

Optics11 was founded in 2011 as a spin-off from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam by experimental physics professor Davide Iannuzzi and entrepreneur Hans Brouwer. It develops advanced fibre-optic sensing systems for the world’s harshest environments. Its tech has applications in the energy sector and underwater security, the two areas relevant to European strategic autonomy.

The company supports missions such as submarine monitoring, border surveillance, and structural health monitoring of naval assets and electricity networks, using technology that enables ultra-sensitive vibration and acoustic monitoring in harsh environments.

According to Optics11, its fibre optic sensors eliminate issues with electromagnetic interference, offering reliability in tough environments where traditional sensors often fail. The company states that its software analyses sensor data at the speed of light, identifying potential threats to prevent costly disruptions. 

The company’s offerings combine fibre-optic sensing hardware with threat detection software. This, according to Optics11, enables faster detection and localisation of threats when compared to other solutions on the market, giving operators more time to respond.

Its solutions include a predictive monitoring solution called OptiFender that identifies and locates partial discharge events – the earliest indicator of upcoming asset failures – within high and medium voltage electrical systems.

While its OptiBarrier and OptiArray solutions provide a subsea early-warning system via precision fibre optic sensors that continuously safeguard underwater infrastructure against sabotage and unauthorised interference.

Last year, in May, the company raised €17 million in a funding round led by FORWARD.one and SET Ventures.

EIB Vice-President Robert de Groot said, “Our continent is working hard to make sure it can hold its own in many different fields, but we need to support the companies that can make that happen. From the energy sector to security and defence capabilities, we need to be able to have the best technology for known and unknown threats. In short, the solutions developed by Optics11 are providing Europe with critical solutions and competitive advantages for the world that is coming.”

The EIB backing for Optics11 is supported under the European Commission’s InvestEU programme. 

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