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 and Yichen Shen s of Lightelligence. Shen Yichen has also founded 1 company.

How many employees does Lightelligence have?

As of Aug 31, 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.

How much is Lightelligence worth?

The latest valuation of Lightelligence is $***** as of Apr 01, 2026.

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. Its primary sector is AI Infrastructure. In United States, the AI Infrastructure sector has seen $266B in funding in 2026 to date.

Where does Lightelligence rank among its competitors?

Lightelligence ranks 17th amongst 373 active competitors, of which 134 are funded. It stands 8th in terms of total funding among its competitors. The most recent competitor to raise funding was Ayar Labs, which secured $150M in Sep, 2026.

Who are the top competitors of Lightelligence?

Lightelligence's top competitors include Groq, Lightmatter and Ambarella. Among them, Ayar Labs secured the most recent funding round in September, 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, Huaiyu Meng, Shen Yichen, Yichen Shen 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, with a current valuation of $*****. The company has 373 active competitors, including 134 funded and 31 that have exited. Its top competitors include companies like Groq, Lightmatter and Ambarella.

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, $*****

Post Money Valuation

$***** as on Apr 01, 2026

Investors

Zhen Fund & 20 more

Ranked

17^th among 373 active competitors

Employee Count

73 as on Aug 31, 2026

Similar Companies

Nvidia & 336 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	1916409	Series C	1650857	8461715	7971367	1010937
Jul 06, 2020	5987401	Series A	4435693	6653515	3047818	3770600
Apr 08, 2020	3391887	Series A	9409137	1877767	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, Huaiyu Meng, Shen Yichen, Yichen Shen and John Joannopoulos. Yichen Shen and Shen Yichen are the CEOs 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.
Contact Info: 2 email addresses
Huaiyu Meng: CTO & ex-Co-Founder of Lightelligence.
Contact Info: 1 email address
Shen Yichen: Co-Founder & CEO of Lightelligence and founder of 1 other company.
Yichen Shen: Founder & CEO of Lightelligence and founder of 1 other company.
Contact Info: 2 email addresses
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 Aug 26. Here is Lightelligence's employee count trend over the years:

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Top competitors of Lightelligence include Groq, Lightmatter and Ambarella. 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, Mountain View (United States), Series E	Developer of specialized hardware processors for artificial intelligence inference workloads	$2.77B	Disruptive, BlackRock & 54 others	72/100
2nd	Lightmatter 2017, Boston (United States), Series D	Developer of photonic interconnects and co-packaged optics for AI infrastructure	$850M	Google Ventures, Viking Global Investors ... & 16 others	70/100
3rd	Ambarella 2004, Santa Clara (United States), Public	Manufacturer of AI-enabled image processors	$15.4M	Northgate Capital, Riverwood Capital & 7 others	69/100
4th	Graphcore Systems 2016, Bristol (United Kingdom), Acquired	Manufacturer of hardware and software for machine learning processing tasks	$742M	Atomico, Baillie Gifford & 75 others	68/100
5th	DarkVision 2013, North Vancouver (Canada), Acquired	Developer of acoustic imaging technology for industrial asset inspection applications	$5.5M	Evok Innovations, Defined Capital & 7 others	68/100
6th	Ayar Labs 2015, San Jose (United States), Series E	Developer of optical interconnect solutions for artificial intelligence infrastructure applications	$1.02B	Neuberger Berman, Light Street Capital & 58 others	67/100
7th	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	66/100
8th	Hailo 2017, Tel Aviv (Israel), Acquired	Provider of neural learning processors for edge AI applications	$340M	OurCrowd, Maniv Mobility & 29 others	66/100
9th	Cerebras 2015, Sunnyvale (United States), Public	Provider of high-performance AI infrastructure and wafer-scale computing solutions	$2.82B	Fidelity Investments, Foundation Capital ... & 35 others	66/100
10th	EdgeCortix 2019, Chuo (Japan), Series B	Developer of energy-efficient AI processors, accelerators, modules, cards, and systems	$138M	Global Hands-On VC, SBI Investment & 14 others	66/100
17th	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	63/100