When was Lightelligence founded?

Lightelligence was founded in 2017 and raised its 1st funding round 1 year after it was founded.

Where is Lightelligence located?

Lightelligence is headquartered in Boston, United States.

Who is the current CEO of Lightelligence?

Shen Yichen of Lightelligence. They have also founded 1 company.

How many employees does Lightelligence have?

As of Apr 30, 2026, the latest employee count at Lightelligence is 73.

Is Lightelligence a funded company?

Lightelligence is a funded company, having raised a total of $247M across 4 funding rounds to date. The company's 1st funding round was a $***** Seed round, raised on Feb 02, 2018.

When was the latest funding round of Lightelligence?

Lightelligence's latest funding was a $***** Series C round on Sep 05, 2025, with participation from 6 investors.

Where does Lightelligence rank among its competitors?

Lightelligence ranks 16th amongst 289 active competitors, of which 121 are funded. It stands 9th in terms of total funding among its competitors. The most recent competitor to raise funding was Axelera AI, which secured $250M in Feb, 2026.

Who are the top competitors of Lightelligence?

Lightelligence's top competitors include Groq, Ambarella and Lightmatter. Among them, Axelera AI secured the most recent funding round in February, 2026.

Lightelligence - 2026 Company Profile, Team, Funding & Competitors

Lightelligence is a series C company based in Boston (United States), founded in 2017 by Marin Soljacic, Shen Yichen and John Joannopoulos. It operates as a Developer of optical chips and software solutions for artificial intelligence based computing. Lightelligence has raised $247M in funding from investors like Zhen Fund, CICC and Matrix Partners China. The company has 289 active competitors, including 121 funded and 27 that have exited. Its top competitors include companies like Groq, Ambarella and Lightmatter.

Company Details

Lightelligence (a spin-off from MIT) is developing optical chips and software solutions for artificial intelligence based computing. The company aims to develop integrated photonics chips for processing and computing machine learning and deep learning algorithms. It claims that its products will have multiple features including high speed, low latency, and low power consumption. Partners include Baidu Ventures, MIT, and NVIDIA.

Website: www.lightelligence.ai
Social
Email ID: *****@lightelligence.ai
Phone Number: +1 **********

Key Metrics

Founded Year

2017

Location

Boston, United States

Stage

Series C

Total Funding

$247M in 4 rounds

Latest Funding Round

Series C, Sep 05, 2025, $*****

Investors

Zhen Fund & 20 more

Ranked

16^th among 289 active competitors

Employee Count

73 as on Apr 30, 2026

Similar Companies

Nvidia & 321 more

View Lightelligence's full profile

Lightelligence has raised a total funding of $247M over 4 rounds. Its first funding round was on Feb 02, 2018. Its latest funding round was a Series C round on Sep 05, 2025 for $*****. 6 investors participated in its latest round. Lightelligence has 21 institutional investors.

Here is the list of recent funding rounds of Lightelligence:

Filter this list

Date of Funding	Funding Amount	Round Name	Post-Money Valuation	Revenue Multiple	Lead Investors	Other Investors
Sep 05, 2025	2931299	Series C	1068251	8075676	8763123	6348878
Jul 06, 2020	5226993	Series A	4202117	1498775	6923026	7659015
Apr 08, 2020	9892772	Series A	1795491	9650600	Matrix Partners China & 1 more	Zhongke Chuangxing & 4 more

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View details of Lightelligence's funding rounds and investors

The founders of Lightelligence are Marin Soljacic, Shen Yichen and John Joannopoulos. Shen Yichen is the CEO of Lightelligence.

Here are the details of Lightelligence's key team members:

Marin Soljacic: Co-Founder of Lightelligence and founder of 2 other companies, Lightelligence and WiTricity.
Shen Yichen: Co-Founder & CEO of Lightelligence and founder of 1 other company.
John Joannopoulos: Co-Founder of Lightelligence and founder of 1 other company.
Contact Info: 1 email address

View details of Lightelligence's Founder profiles and Board Members

Lightelligence's employee count trend

Lightelligence has 73 employees as of Apr 26. Here is Lightelligence's employee count trend over the years:

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Top competitors of Lightelligence include Groq, Ambarella and Lightmatter. Here is the list of Top 10 competitors of Lightelligence, ranked by Tracxn score:

Rank	Company Details	Short Description	Total Funding	Investors	Tracxn Score
1st	Groq 2016, San Jose (United States), Series E	Provider of AI inference platforms and on-premise AI inference clusters	$1.75B	BlackRock, Social Capital & 45 others	72/100
2nd	Ambarella 2004, Santa Clara (United States), Public	Manufacturer of AI-enabled image processors	$15.4M	Benchmark, Corner Ventures & 7 others	71/100
3rd	Lightmatter 2017, Boston (United States), Series D	Developer of photonic interconnects and co-packaged optics for AI infrastructure	$850M	Viking Global Investors, Google Ventures ... & 12 others	70/100
4th	Cerebras 2015, Sunnyvale (United States), Series H	Platform offering computing and artificial intelligence solutions	$2.55B	Fidelity Investments, Benchmark & 29 others	70/100
5th	Graphcore Systems 2016, United Kingdom, Acquired	Provider of processors and IPUs for enterprises	$767M	Atomico, Merian Global Investors & 74 others	68/100
6th	Celestial AI 2020, Santa Clara (United States), Acquired	Developer of optical interconnect technology for artificial intelligence infrastructure systems	$589M	Koch Disruptive Technologies, Fidelity Investments ... & 21 others	68/100
7th	Black Sesame Technologies 2016, Pudong (China), Public	Developer of AI-based chips for machine vision tasks	$500M	Tencent, Xiaomi & 32 others	67/100
8th	Axelera AI 2021, Eindhoven (Netherlands), Series C	Developer of hardware and software for edge artificial intelligence inference	$450M	Innovation Industries, Samsung Catalyst Fund ... & 13 others	66/100
9th	Optalysys 2013, Leeds (United Kingdom), Series A	Provider of AI-powered optical processing technology for big data applications	$63M	Exor, Northern Gritstone & 79 others	66/100
10th	SiMa.ai 2018, San Jose (United States), Series C	Developer of hardware and software platform for physical artificial intelligence	$355M	Fidelity Investments, Maverick Capital & 13 others	65/100
16th	Lightelligence 2017, Boston (United States), Series C	Developer of optical chips and software solutions for artificial intelligence based computing	$247M	China Reform Fund Management, MIT Startup Exchange ... & 19 others	65/100