Photon Bridge

Photon Bridge is a photonics company based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, known as Photon IP until September 2025. According to Dealroom and Trending Topics it was founded in 2020; Rui Santos is co-founder and CTO, while Paul Marchal, co-founder and CEO of Morrow and a former imec researcher, has been CEO since 25 September 2025. The technology is built for optical connections between chips in AI data centres. Instead of one powerful laser, the company combines light from several weaker lasers, each on a different wavelength, into a single fibre; the design targets up to 40 milliwatts per wavelength, and the company says weaker lasers fail less often in production. Its website describes digital light engines that join III-V sources to thick silicon waveguides. It has no factory of its own: it works with outside chipmakers and can source lasers from several of them. On 21 October 2026 it announced €10 million led by the Amadeus APEX Technology Fund and 360 Capital, with new money from existing investors Innovation Industries, Faber and the Brabant Development Agency (BOM). It had previously raised a €4.75 million seed. The funds are for developing the product, testing it with customers and hiring in Eindhoven; first samples are planned for 2027 and preparation for mass production from 2028.