Aylight
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About
Aylight is a Zurich-based photonics startup building chip-scale multiwavelength lasers for AI data-centre optical interconnects and high-precision frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) sensing. Founded in 2025 by Bahareh Marzban (CEO) and Dmitry Kazakov (CTO) following research at ETH Zürich, Aylight’s architecture generates multiple precisely spaced wavelengths from a single chip using a frequency-modulated comb, reducing the need for arrays of discrete lasers in optical communication systems. The design targets manufacturability in existing semiconductor photonics foundries 123.
Funding History
| Date | Round | Amount | Lead | Co-investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-07-06 | Pre-Seed | €4.5M | Elaia, Swisscom Ventures | Verve Ventures, Plug and Play 123 |
Proceeds fund Aylight’s first semiconductor-foundry prototypes and expand its R&D team as it pushes toward initial commercial products for the data-centre market 12.
What Investors Say
“Aylight is the kind of exceptional company where physics, founders, and market timing converge at once.” — Clément Vanden Driessche, Partner, Elaia 1
“Aylight has produced a truly unique and elegant solution for precision DWDM laser sources.” — Pär Lange, Partner, Swisscom Ventures 1
What Founders Say
“We started from a problem, not a technology: the laser had become one of the real limits on how far AI can scale.” — Bahareh Marzban, Co-founder & CEO, Aylight 1
“Everyone assumed the semiconductor laser was a solved problem. It isn’t — there was physics left to find.” — Dmitry Kazakov, Co-founder & CTO, Aylight 1
Sources
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Swisscom Ventures, “Aylight raises €4.5M pre-seed to reinvent the laser behind AI’s optical bottleneck,” July 6, 2026. Accessed July 2026. https://ventures.swisscom.com/aylight-raises-e4-5m-pre-seed-to-reinvent-the-laser-behind-ais-optical-bottleneck/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
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Tech.eu, “Aylight closes €4.5M pre-seed round to advance optical interconnect technology,” July 6, 2026. Accessed July 2026. https://tech.eu/2026/07/06/aylight-closes-eur45m-pre-seed-round-to-advance-optical-interconnect-technology/↩↩↩
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Tech Funding News, “Aylight snaps €4.5M to make Nvidia’s $4B laser shortage fix unnecessary,” July 6, 2026. Accessed July 2026. https://techfundingnews.com/aylight-snaps-e4-5m-to-make-nvidias-4b-laser-shortage-fix-unnecessary/↩↩
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FinSMEs, “Aylight Raises €4.5M in Pre-Seed Funding,” July 2026. Accessed July 2026. https://www.finsmes.com/2026/07/aylight-raises-e4-5m-in-pre-seed-funding.html↩