When was Lightmatter founded?

Lightmatter was founded in 2017 and became a unicorn in 2023.

Where is Lightmatter located?

Lightmatter is headquartered in Boston, United States.

Who is the current CEO of Lightmatter?

Nicholas Harris of Lightmatter. They have also founded 1 company and are an angel investors in 1 startup.

How many employees does Lightmatter have?

As of Mar 31, 2026, the latest employee count at Lightmatter is 315.

Is Lightmatter a funded company?

Lightmatter is a funded company, having raised a total of $850M across 9 funding rounds to date. The company's 1st funding round was a $100K Grant (prize money) round, raised on May 09, 2017.

How much is Lightmatter worth?

The latest valuation of Lightmatter is $4.4B as of Oct 16, 2024.

When was the latest funding round of Lightmatter?

Lightmatter's latest funding was a $400M Series D round on Oct 11, 2024, with participation from 3 investors.

Is Lightmatter a Digital ICs company?

The primary sectors of Lightmatter are Digital ICs, AI Infrastructure, Photonics, High Performance Computing and Artificial Intelligence.

Where does Lightmatter rank among its competitors?

Lightmatter ranks 3rd amongst 44 active competitors, of which 21 are funded. It stands 3rd in terms of total funding among its competitors. The most recent competitor to raise funding was SambaNova Systems, which secured $350M in Feb, 2026.

Who are the top competitors of Lightmatter?

Lightmatter's top competitors include Nvidia, Groq and Graphcore Systems. Among them, SambaNova Systems secured the most recent funding round in February, 2026.

Lightmatter - 2026 Company Profile, Team, Funding & Competitors

Sectors and market segments that Lightmatter operate in

Lightmatter serves in the Semiconductors, High Tech, Native AI market segments.The primary business model of Lightmatter are:

Company Details

Developer of photonic interconnects and co-packaged optics for AI infrastructure. The company’s technology addresses data center bottlenecks by connecting XPUs and switches. It offers solutions with lane speeds from 56G NRZ to 448G PAM4, bidirectional or unidirectional, and up to 16 wavelengths. The company also promotes open standards to drive adoption of advanced optical interconnect technologies.

Website: lightmatter.co
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Email ID: *****@lightmatter.co

Key Metrics

Founded Year

2017

Location

Boston, United States

Stage

Series D

Total Funding

$850M in 9 rounds

Latest Funding Round

Series D, Oct 11, 2024, $400M

Post Money Valuation

$4.4B as on Oct 16, 2024

Investors

Google Ventures & 13 more

Ranked

3^rd among 44 active competitors

Employee Count

315 as on Mar 31, 2026

Similar Companies

Nvidia & 286 more

View Lightmatter's full profile

Lightmatter is associated with 2 legal entities given below:

Legal Entity Name	Date of Incorporation	Revenue	Latest Employee Count	Documents
LIGHTMATTER INC CIN: 823335800 , United States, Active		-	206 (As on Dec 31, 2024)	-
LIGHT MATTER, INC. CIN: 4136073 , United States, Active	Aug 29, 2011	-	145 (As on Dec 31, 2023)	-

Lightmatter has raised a total funding of $850M over 9 rounds. Its first funding round was on May 09, 2017. Its latest funding round was a Series D round on Oct 11, 2024 for $400M. 3 investors participated in its latest round. Lightmatter has 14 institutional investors.

Here is the list of recent funding rounds of Lightmatter:

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Date of Funding	Funding Amount	Round Name	Post-Money Valuation	Revenue Multiple	Lead Investors	Other Investors
Oct 11, 2024	$400M	Series D	$4.4B	-	T. Rowe Price	Fidelity Investments, Google Ventures
Jan 10, 2024	Undisclosed	Series C	-	-	SIP Global Partners	-
Dec 18, 2023	$155M	Series C	$1.2B	-	Google Ventures, Viking Global Investors	-

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View details of Lightmatter's funding rounds and investors

The founders of Lightmatter are Nicholas Harris, Darius Bunandar and Thomas Graham. Nicholas Harris is the CEO of Lightmatter.

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

Nicholas Harris: Co-Founder & CEO of Lightmatter. They are also an angel investor in 1 startup.
Contact Info: 1 email address
Darius Bunandar: Co-Founder of Lightmatter.
Contact Info: 1 email address
Thomas Graham: Co-Founder of Lightmatter.
Contact Info: 1 email address

View details of Lightmatter's Founder profiles and Board Members

Lightmatter's employee count trend

Lightmatter has 315 employees as of Mar 26. Here is Lightmatter's employee count trend over the years:

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Top competitors of Lightmatter include Nvidia, Groq and Graphcore Systems. Here is the list of Top 10 competitors of Lightmatter, ranked by Tracxn score:

Rank	Company Details	Short Description	Total Funding	Investors	Tracxn Score
1st	Nvidia 1993, Santa Clara (United States), Public	Developer of hardware and software solutions for artificial intelligence computing	-	Worldview Technology Partners, Black Capital Investments ... & 36 others	77/100
2nd	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
3rd	Lightmatter 2017, Boston (United States), Series D	Developer of photonic interconnects and co-packaged optics for AI infrastructure	$850M	Fidelity Investments, Aliya & 12 others	70/100
4th	Graphcore Systems 2016, United Kingdom, Acquired	Provider of processors and IPUs for enterprises	$767M	Atomico, Merian Global Investors & 74 others	68/100
5th	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
6th	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
7th	SambaNova Systems 2017, Palo Alto (United States), Series E	Provider of AI-powered software and hardware	$1.48B	BlackRock, Vista Equity Partners & 29 others	64/100
8th	Calligotech 2012, Bengaluru (India), Seed	Developer of computing solutions for high-performance computing and AI workloads	$2.67M	KITVEN, UST & 62 others	63/100
9th	Neurophos 2020, Austin (United States), Series A	Platform that deliver GPU-level performance in a compact, energy-efficient form using optical computing and metamaterials	$120M	MetaVC Partners, Gates Frontier & 14 others	59/100
10th	NextSilicon 2017, Tel Aviv (Israel), Series C	Developer of intelligent compute architecture and software-defined hardware acceleration solutions	$120M	Amiti, Third Point Ventures & 5 others	57/100