Earlier this year, Lightmatter announced that it raised $154 million and tripled its undisclosed valuation.
The Boston-based developer of photonic chips specialized for AI made headlines again on Tuesday for closing an additional $155 million in new funding and revealing its new valuation of $1.2 billion — making Lightmatter a “unicorn” startup company.
Lightmatter is one of very few Massachusetts “unicorns” — or companies whose valuations tipped over $1 billion — in 2023. The other most recent additions to this club were the fintech Lendbuzz and green hydrogen startup Electric Hydrogen Co. in October. Before that, only EV battery recycler Ascend Elements, industrial wastewater recycler Gradiant and synthetic biology company Asimov hit a $1 billion valuation in 2023.
Lightmatter said it extended its Series C round from earlier this year to meet the increasing demand of AI and high-performance computing.
“Lightmatter is positioned to be a key driver in powering the next generation of computing systems that will further enable AI innovation. Through photonic technologies, Lightmatter is ensuring the steady progress in computing performance continues, despite growing power consumption challenges and slowing progress with transistor scaling,” Lightmatter co-founder and CEO Nick Harris said in a statement.
The photonic chip developer says its products can reduce the amount of power needed to operate and train AI, which has a growing environmental impact.
The latest funding was led by GV (Google Ventures) and Viking Global Investors. Lightmatter has raised over $420 million to date.
Following the company’s last funding announcement in May, Lightmatter said it has grown its headcount more than 50% to meet client demand and product milestones. In May, the MIT spinoff said it employed 115 workers, including about 55 in Greater Boston and 40 in Mountain View, California.
With this latest growth in headcount and capital, Lightmatter plans to open a Toronto office in 2024. The company also hired Danner Stodolsky as vice president of data center architecture and Colin Sturt as general counsel.
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