Quintessent, a startup developing optical interconnect solutions for AI data centers, has raised $40 million in a Series A funding round.
Canadian venture firm Cycle Capital led the oversubscribed round that included investment from Goldman Sachs XIG-Industry Ventures, Hina Liberty Capital, and M Ventures. Networking optics giant Ciena was a noteworthy name among the list of backers.
Quintessent demoed its dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) comb laser technology at the OFC event earlier this year, claiming the technology can simplify optical connectivity for scaling AI clusters. The startup kicked off customer sampling and plans to use the cash to mature its product lines and ramp manufacturing.
“For the past several years, we have focused on building technologies designed to make optical connectivity fundamentally simpler to deploy and scale,” Quintessent CEO Alan Liu explained. “With today’s news, Quintessent is starting its transition from tech development to a product-focused company. We plan to use our investment to accelerate that transition and meet customer demand.”
Liu co-founded Quintessent alongside Brian Koch in 2019. The CEO was previously a lead engineer at Booz Allen Hamilton and a photonics consultant for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Koch, who serves as the startup’s engineering VP, is an Intel and Juniper alum, notably having led the latter’s photonic device team.
