Alphabet's venturing unit has led a $22m series A extension for MIT spinout Lightmatter, which increased the round's total to $33m.

Lightmatter, a US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaker  spun out of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has completed a $22m series A extension led by GV, a corporate venturing subsidiary of internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet, to bring the round’s total to $33m. The extension also included commitments from Matrix Partners and Spark Capital, which co-led the initial $11m tranche last year. Founded in 2017, Lightmatter is developing silicon chips that use light signals instead of electrical signals to process large datasets, such as those used for artificial intelligence-powered products. The funds will be used to support its product development, though it is not clear when the chips will be available. Tyson Clark, partner at GV, has joined the company’s board of directors. Clark said: “Lightmatter is building a next generation computing platform at the cutting edge of photonics and artificial intelligence, at a time when there is a growing need for new hardware-based approaches to AI acceleration “We believe the team’s theoretical expertise and engineering talent are clear differentiators in the market for artificial intelligence accelerators.” – A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.

Subscribe to go deeper

GCV subscribers get access to all our proprietary data and deep-dive articles, as well as the global directory of CVC investors.



Not sure if you have a subscription?
Thierry Heles

Thierry Heles is the editor of Global University Venturing, host of the Beyond the Breakthrough interview podcast and responsible for the monthly GUV Gazette (sign up here for free).