Polaris Electro-Optics, Inc., a Colorado-based company, announced the successful completion of its over-subscribed Seed financing round, resulting in an investment of $3M. Polaris leverages patented material and design innovations to offer the highest speed, most energy efficient integrated photonics products to the communications and computing industries.
BROOMFIELD, Colo., Dec. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Polaris Electro-Optics, Inc., a Colorado-based company, announced the successful completion of its over-subscribed Seed financing round, resulting in an investment of $3M. Polaris leverages patented material and design innovations to offer the highest speed, most energy efficient integrated photonics products to the communications and computing industries. The funding round was led by Rhapsody Venture Partners and garnered support from new investor Buff Gold Ventures as well as pre-seed investor, M Ventures. As part of this milestone, Bernard Lupien of Rhapsody Venture Partners will join Polaris’ Board of Directors.
Jason Sickler, CEO of Polaris, emphasized the significance of this financing round, stating, “The addition of Rhapsody and Buff Gold Ventures as shareholders, along with the unwavering support from M Ventures, underscores the vast potential of our platform technology to revolutionize the communications and computation sectors. To meet the ever-growing demands of these markets, we must deliver unparalleled speed, exceptional energy efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and stability. In all respects, Polaris’s technology stands unrivaled.”
Bernard Lupien, General Partner at Rhapsody Venture Partners, underlined the remarkable potential of Polaris’s platform, stating, “We’ve conducted thorough assessments of various technologies aimed at continually enhancing the speed and efficiency of optical communications.
We believe that Polaris’s platform has the most promising potential for solving the acute data transfer bottlenecks that the industry is facing.
This funding will be strategically allocated towards advancing material and design innovation. It will further enable Polaris Electro-Optics to showcase high-speed, high-efficiency devices designed for optical interconnect systems, reaffirming their commitment to transforming the optical technology landscape.”
Our excitement for Polaris Electro-Optics’ potential to deliver a step-function change to the silicon photonics roadmap has only increased since our pre-Seed investment, and we are more than glad to double down with our Seed round investment.
Through our existing investments in the photonics, optics, and high-performance compute sectors, we recognize an unmet and rapidly growing need for a next generation of electro-optic modulators. We believe that Polaris’ technology platform will be integral to enable the anticipated fundamental trends in high-performance compute, such as the shift towards datacenter disaggregation,
“Next to the intrinsic advantages in modulation physics, we see the clear route towards mass-manufacturability and back-end integration with existing fabrications processes as a major differentiator.”
“We are delighted to join the collaborative team of investors supporting Polaris Electro-Optics. The disruptive intellectual property licensed from the University of Colorado, combined with a strong team of experienced founders and technologists, gives Polaris a solid foundation for quick innovation and early traction,” noted Sally Hatcher, Managing Partner of Buff Gold Ventures.
About Polaris Electro-Optics, Inc.
At Polaris Electro-Optics, Inc., we believe that overcoming society’s greatest challenges requires mastery of the creation, movement, and use of information. We are mastering the movement of information by leveraging patented material and design innovations to offer the highest-speed, most energy efficient integrated photonics products to the communications and computation industries. Our goal is to define the standard for moving information. We work hard in a collaborative, cross-functional team environment, and value mutual trust and respect built on a foundation of integrity, transparency, consistency, and humility. Additional information about Polaris is available at www.PolarisEO.com.
About Rhapsody Venture Partners
Rhapsody Venture Partners is a venture firm in Cambridge, MA, that funds early-stage applied science and engineering companies. Rhapsody’s team works side-by-side with entrepreneurs to secure anchor customers that reduce time-to-commercialization and accelerate growth. www.RhapsodyVP.com
About M Ventures
M Ventures is the strategic, corporate venture capital arm of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. From its headquarters in the Netherlands and offices in Germany, USA and Israel, M Ventures invests globally in transformational ideas driven by innovative entrepreneurs. Taking an active role in its portfolio companies, M Ventures teams up with management teams and co-investors to translate scientific discoveries into commercial success. M Ventures focuses on identifying and financing novel solutions to some of the most difficult challenges, through company creation and equity investments in fields that will impact the vitality and sustainability of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany’s current and future businesses. www.M-Ventures.com
About Buff Gold Ventures
Buff Gold Ventures is a venture capital firm dedicated to investing in and supporting innovative startups affiliated with the University of Colorado Boulder. Our mission is to accelerate the development of disruptive technologies that address global challenges while fostering the growth of the next generation of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. We invest in technology and the diverse teams solving some of the world’s most pressing problems. www.BuffGoldVentures.com.
