What NcodiN does

NcodiN is a French deep-tech company founded in 2023 as a spin-off from CNRS's Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies (C2N). The company develops nanophotonic chips designed to replace copper interconnects in advanced processors, addressing bandwidth, energy efficiency, and thermal limitations that constrain AI and high-performance computing chip scaling. Its core product platform, NConnect, is an optical interconnect solution built around the world's smallest directly modulated InP-on-silicon nanolaser, a technology pioneered by co-founder Fabrice Raineri and first demonstrated in a 2017 Nature Photonics publication. The nanolaser achieves a footprint below 100 µm², current threshold under 100 µA, wall-plug efficiency above 10%, and integration density exceeding 5,000 devices/mm², enabling bandwidth density of ≥60 Tbps/mm² and energy consumption as low as 0.1 pJ/bit, roughly 1,000x more efficient than state-of-the-art alternatives.

NcodiN's primary target customers are semiconductor and AI chip manufacturers requiring high-bandwidth, energy-efficient chiplet-to-chiplet interconnects, with secondary applications in high-performance computing, telecommunications, healthcare, and autonomous driving. The company maintains strategic relationships with NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Intel, and ASML, who are listed as advisors and potential integration partners rather than confirmed paying customers. In March 2026, NcodiN entered a strategic partnership with CEA-Leti to industrialize its technology on 300mm CMOS-compatible silicon photonics processes, marking the transition from research prototype to commercial manufacturing.

The company operates an enterprise B2B go-to-market with three revenue streams: sale of photonic interposer components (hardware sales), licensing of proprietary nanolaser IP (licensing/royalties), and joint R&D and engineering services with industry partners. Pricing is not publicly disclosed. As of late 2025, NcodiN had raised €19.5M total across two seed rounds (€3.5M in May 2024 and €16M in November 2025), employs 11-50 people, and is headquartered in Palaiseau, France, with a planned Silicon Valley presence and an R&D collaboration site in Grenoble.

Name

NcodiN

Legal name

SAS NCODIN

Website

https://ncodin.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2023

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

NcodiN is a French deep-tech startup developing nanophotonic optical interconnects that replace copper in advanced AI and HPC processors. Its NConnect platform uses the world's smallest InP-on-silicon nanolaser to deliver high-bandwidth, energy-efficient chiplet-to-chiplet links for semiconductor manufacturers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Silicon Photonics

NAICS

Semiconductor and Other Electronic Component Manufacturing (3344), Electronic Connector Manufacturing (334417)

SIC

Semiconductors & Related Devices (3674), Computer Communications Equipment (3576)

akta.pro primary industry

Networking & Data Center Silicon (Switch/NIC/DPU/SerDes) (HDAHABAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Package Substrates & Interposers (ABF/BT, Silicon/Glass) (HDAHADAE), Sockets, IC Sockets & Test/Programming Interconnects (HDAHAOAF)

Keywords

• Silicon photonics
• Optical interconnects
• Nanophotonic chips
• Chiplet communication
• Photonic interposers

Headquarters

HQ city

Palaiseau

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Photonic Interposer Components: Sale of photonic interposer products and nanolaser-enabled optical interconnect components to semiconductor manufacturers and AI chip companies.
2. Technology Licensing: Licensing of proprietary nanolaser technology and optical interconnect IP to chipmakers for integration into their processor architectures.
3. R&D and Engineering Services: Joint development and engineering services with industry partners for product industrialization and advanced packaging integration.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

NcodiN develops and manufactures nanophotonic chips and photonic interposers for data transport between processors. Its core product, NConnect, is an optical interconnect platform powered by the world's smallest InP-on-silicon nanolasers, enabling ultra-dense, energy-efficient, high-bandwidth chiplet-to-chiplet communication for AI and high-performance computing chips. The company also licenses its proprietary nanolaser IP and provides joint development services to chipmakers.

Product overview

NcodiN offers a single unified product platform called NConnect—a photonic interposer and optical interconnect solution powered by the world's smallest InP-on-silicon nanolaser. The platform is designed to replace traditional copper interconnects in semiconductor chips, providing high-bandwidth, low-latency, and energy-efficient data transmission between chiplets within processors. NConnect integrates seamlessly with existing chiplet architectures and advanced packaging techniques, enabling chipmakers to scale AI processors and high-performance computing systems beyond the limitations of copper interconnects. As the company's sole product offering, NConnect represents NcodiN's complete value proposition in addressing the 'copper wall' bottleneck constraining AI hardware performance.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• NConnect: Optical interconnect platform powered by the world's smallest laser on silicon, enabling high-bandwidth, low-latency data transfer between chiplets for AI and HPC processors

Products and services

• NConnect

Quantifiable outcome

• Energy consumption reduced to 0.1 pJ/bit - 1000x less than state-of-the-art technologies
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core, advisory and minor.

• CEA-LeticoreTechnology or Integration · 11 March 2026Strategic collaboration to industrialize NcodiN's optical interposer technology on a 300mm integrated photonics process. CEA-Leti provides advanced photonics integration expertise and pre-industrialization facilities to transition NcodiN's nanolaser technology from proof-of-concept to commercially viable production compatible with standard CMOS fabrication facilities.
• Eli YablonovitchadvisoryOthers · 20 November 2025Renowned physicist, pioneer of photonic crystals, and cofounder of Luxtera, Ethertronics, Luminescent, and Alta Devices. Provides strategic guidance as advisory board member.
• Gus YeungadvisoryOthers · 20 November 2025Former General Manager at ARM (20 years), CTO at Intel Foundry Services. Provides guidance on industry relationships and technology transformation for serving external customers.
• Peter de DobbelaereadvisoryOthers · 20 November 2025Seasoned Silicon Photonics engineer who played central role in Luxtera's rise as the first major success story in silicon photonics industry.
• CNRS/C2NcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerParent research institution where core nanolaser technology was developed. Company is a CNRS spin-off built on 15+ years of breakthrough research at Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies.
• Intel IgniteminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerStartup acceleration program partner providing mentorship and industry connections through Intel's ecosystem.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Lightmatter: Lightmatter builds photonic processors and optical interconnect platforms (Envise, Passage) for AI data centers, targeting the same chiplet-to-chiplet optical communication bottleneck NcodiN addresses with NConnect. It is a direct competitor in AI-focused silicon photonics interconnects.
• Ayar Labs: Ayar Labs develops optical I/O chiplets that replace electrical SerDes for chip-to-chip communication in AI and HPC systems, directly competing with NcodiN's NConnect photonic interposer. Both target in-package optical links at multi-Tbps/mm densities.
• Celestial AI: Celestial AI's Photonic Fabric platform is an optical interconnect solution for AI accelerators and memory disaggregation, directly comparable to NcodiN's NConnect. Both compete for chiplet-to-chiplet and accelerator-to-memory bandwidth in hyperscale AI systems.
• Ranovus: Ranovus provides silicon photonics-based optical interconnect solutions (Odin, Osiris) for data center and AI/ HPC applications, using integrated lasers and ring modulators. It overlaps with NcodiN on chip-to-chip and rack-scale optical interconnect for AI workloads.
• DustPhotonics: DustPhotonics manufactures silicon photonics-based transceivers, lasers-on-silicon, and optical interconnect components for data centers and AI clusters. Its on-silicon laser technology and focus on chip-to-chip optical links closely parallels NcodiN's nanolaser interposer approach.
• POET Technologies: POET Technologies offers an integrated photonic interposer platform (Optical Interposer) for data center, AI, and 5G applications, combining III-V lasers with silicon waveguides on a wafer-level platform. It directly competes with NcodiN in the chip-scale photonic interposer category.

Emerging players

• Lightelligence: Lightelligence develops photonic computing and optical interconnect hardware for AI inference and training. It is comparable to NcodiN as an emerging silicon-photonics player targeting AI bandwidth bottlenecks, though more focused on photonic compute than interposers.

Broad incumbents

• Intel (Silicon Photonics): Intel has an established silicon photonics business producing optical transceivers and integrated optical I/O for data centers, and is also a strategic advisor to NcodiN. It is a broad incumbent that competes in adjacent product categories (pluggable transceivers, co-packaged optics) with overlapping customer accounts.
• Cisco (Acacia Communications): Cisco, via Acacia Communications, develops high-performance coherent optical interconnect silicon and DSPs used in data center and telecom networks. It is a broad incumbent with overlapping photonic interconnect IP targeting hyperscaler and service-provider customers.
• Marvell (Inphi): Marvell, following the Inphi acquisition, supplies high-speed optical DSPs, PAM4 PHYs, and silicon photonics components for cloud and AI data center interconnects. It is a broad incumbent competing for the same interconnect bandwidth budgets that NcodiN targets with nanolaser interposers.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ncodin

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors9 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about NcodiN