O
Optalysys
Photonic chips that accelerate always-encrypted FHE computing
About Optalysys
Optalysys is a Leeds photonic-computing company founded in 2013 by Dr Nick New (CEO; PhD optical pattern recognition, Cambridge) and Robert Todd (CTO; optics/engineering background spanning Seagate, BAE and CERN). It builds silicon-photonic hardware that accelerates Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE)—processing data while it stays encrypted—by running the Fourier-heavy transforms that dominate FHE workloads at optical speed, aiming to make always-encrypted cloud, AI and blockchain collaboration practical where electronic processors hit performance walls. Products include Enable photonic chiplets and LightLocker Node servers for encrypted blockchain applications, with partners including Google HEIR, Duality Technologies and Zama. After a prior Series A, in January 2026 Optalysys raised £23 million (€26.4 million) in a Series A extension led by Northern Gritstone, with imec.xpand, Lingotto Horizon and the UK National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF), to commercialise chips and expand in the US. Sources: EU-Startups 22 Jan 2026; Northern Gritstone; optalysys.com.
Source: Dealroom company dataAt a glance
- Status
- Operational
- Founded
- 2013
- Headquarters
- Wakefield, United Kingdom
- Employees
- 54
- Open positions
- None listed
- Dealroom signal
- 66.9/100
- Sector
- Semiconductors, Privacy Protection, Core AI, Processor, Optical Technology, Spinout, Future of Computing
- Technology
- Artificial Intelligence, Hardware, Deep Tech, Machine Learning, Deep Learning
- Business model
- Manufacturing, SaaS
- Client focus
- b2b
Knowledge graph
More headlines
Funding history
Company financing events and reported valuations.
| Deal type | Date | Amount | Valuation | Investors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SERIES AOther financing | Jan 2026 | $30M | $121M | National Security Strategic Investment Fund · Northern Gritstone | ↗ |
| SERIES AOther financing | Jul 2023 | $28M | $111M | Verve Ventures · Northern Gritstone · Lingotto Investment Management · imec.xpand | ↗ |
Financials
Revenue, earnings and other financial measures where available. Years marked “E” are estimates.
Growth signals
Latest recorded traffic for Optalysys is 6K monthly website visits, down 60% over the last three months. Optalysys's team declined 12.9% over the past year.
Similar companies
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Investments and acquisitions
Recent portfolio relationships for companies that also act as investors or acquirers.
Investors
From Dealroom's funding and investor records, grouped by the round each investor first entered.
Seed2 investors entered at this stage
QVentures
DARPA
Series A5 investors entered at this stage
Northern Gritstone
Lingotto Investment Management
imec.xpand
Verve Ventures
National Security Strategic Investment Fund
Other known investors1 additional known investor
University of Cambridge
Source: Dealroom Talent Intelligence.
Global footprint
team presence
Market sentiment
An AI-synthesised read of the highest-engagement posts about Optalysys on X, ranked by likes and reposts, corporate channels excluded.
Reading the room on X — pulling top posts and synthesizing themes…
Source: X recent search ranked by engagement (likes + retweets) · Synthesis by Claude · Cached for 1 hour
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