Vexlum, a Tampere-based manufacturer of semiconductor lasers for high-impact applications, today announced that it has secured €10 million in funding to scale its proprietary semiconductor chip manufacturing and laser technology operations in Finland.
Vexlum claims that this funding is set to be the largest Seed round to date for a photonics company from the Nordics. The round includes €6 million in equity investment led by Kvanted, with participation from Finnish state-owned Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment Ltd) and the EIC Fund. It also comprises a €2.4 million grant from the EIC Accelerator, along with a €1.6 million loan from Nordea.
Jussi-Pekka Penttinen, CEO and co-founder of Vexlum, said, “Securing and scaling our semiconductor fabrication infrastructure is critical for the market’s evolution. It allows us to ensure that the laser quality and reliability meet our customers’ stringent requirements. We are moving beyond boutique production to industrial-scale capability. This funding allows us to bring our semiconductor manufacturing into a new, expanded facility here in Tampere and scale our capacity to meet the demand from the quantum, semiconductor, and space sectors.”
Vexlum is a spin-off from the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), Tampere University of Technology. Founded in 2017, Vexlum is a DeepTech company specialising in high-power semiconductor laser systems based on its proprietary Vertical-External-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VECSEL) technology.
According to the Finnish startup, its VECSEL technology addresses a critical bottleneck in high-tech industries: the lack of compact, cost-effective, high-power laser sources at precise wavelengths. Applications, such as atomic clocks, quantum computers, next-generation semiconductor metrology, and free-space optical communication technology, depend heavily on lasers.
The company claims that its lasers address this bottleneck, enabling industrial deployment of these systems. The funding will be used to expand Vexlum’s manufacturing capacity and production scale, to accelerate adoption within quantum technologies and related applications.
The fabrication of Vexlum’s chips starts with molecular beam epitaxy, where the semiconductor wafer is “grown” in a reactor, atomic layer by atomic layer – akin to 3D printing on an atomic scale.
Vexlum’s chip fabrication process is comparable to 3D printing on an atomic scale. The process starts with molecular beam epitaxy, where the semiconductor wafer is “grown” in a reactor layer by layer at the atomic scale.
The company notes that it uses III-V semiconductor materials (such as gallium arsenide, indium phosphide, and gallium antimonide) to produce laser wafers for specific wavelengths, unlike the silicon used in traditional electronics. “The wafers are fabricated into laser chips in a specialised cleanroom, after which the quality-controlled, ready chips are integrated into laser systems to generate laser light. This vertical integration in a facility owned by Vexlum allows the company to control the entire value chain – from chip manufacturing to the final laser system – and to address customer needs,” Vexlum explains in the press release.
The fresh capital will be used by the company to drive its growth strategy, which targets €100 million in revenue by 2030. Vexlum is currently a supplier for trapped-ion quantum computers. Its ability to manufacture lasers across diverse wavelengths enables applications beyond quantum labs, including satellite optical communications, next-generation optical atomic clocks, and other use cases where specific laser colours are needed.
“The quantum ecosystem has taught us that extreme precision is only valuable if it can be delivered reliably and at scale. We are now taking those hard-won lessons and applying them to the broader photonics landscape. Whether for satellite communications or semiconductor metrology, we are proving that the rigorous architecture developed for quantum computers is the same engine needed to drive the next generation of industrial innovation,” added Penttinen.
Vexlum operates from both Tampere, Finland, and Boulder, Colorado, USA. “Tampere has emerged as a leading hub for optoelectronics and III-V semiconductor technology, building on a strong foundation of world-class academic research and a proven ability to translate it into industrial innovation. This investment round represents a decisive step in scaling our ambitions, securing a leading position for Tampere and Finland in the advanced semiconductor industry,” said Mircea Guina, Chairperson and co-founder of Vexlum.
