Parisian deeptech NcodiN has completed a seed round of 16 million eurosled by MIG Capital via its MIF 17 and 18 funds. Maverick Silicon, PhotonVentures, Verve Venturesas well asElaia, Earlybird Venture Capital And UFO Capital also participate in the operation. This funding places the young startup in the global race for integrated photonics, while AI architectures are today reaching the physical limits of copper. It had previously raised 3.5 million euros in pre seed.
The copper wall in advanced AI architectures
The calculation systems used for generative AI and HPC now rely on clusters of dozens of chiplets, powered by HBM memory itself dependent on ultra-fast interconnections. However, traditional electronic connections are no longer keeping up with high energy losses, limited range, heat that is difficult to dissipate, and bandwidth that is plateauing. The bottleneck is no longer the GPU, but the interconnectionwhich has become the major point of tension for “AI factories”. It is this structural block that is being tackled.
Photonic technology integrated directly into silicon
Founded in 2023 by Francesco Manegatti, Bruno Garbin And Fabrice RaineriNcodiN is developing a technology that replaces short-distance electrical connections with optical interconnects. The company integrates nanalasers directly onto standard silicon, transforming communications between and within chiplets.
The goal is to transmit more data, further, with reduced energy consumption. This rupture opens the way to multi-chiplet superchips able to overcome current thermal and energy barriers. In a context where NVIDIA, AMD and new specialized players are working on horizontal scaling, NcodiN offers a brick that has become strategic.
A challenge of technological sovereignty for Europe
Integrated photonics remains a field dominated by American players like Ayar Labs or Lightmatter, in direct proximity to the cloud giants. By positioning itself on one of the most critical elements of intensive computing, which is interconnection, NcodiN places itself in a segment where Europe lacks industrial champions.
The startup plans to strengthen its team, industrialize its nanolaser technology, structure its supply chain, and open a presence in Silicon Valley to engage in qualification cycles with strategic partners.
The promise: powering the “AI factories” of the next decade
Francesco Manegatti aims to provide “the missing piece to achieve extreme memory bandwidth and enable wafer-scale superchips”. In architectures where the energy consumption of interconnects sometimes represents more than a third of the total, photonic efficiency becomes a major differentiator.
NcodiN is thus part of the transition from computing centered on computing power to computing optimized for the movement of data. AI leaders all face the same problem, scaler is not just about GPU, but interconnection.
