Salience Labs Raises $30M to scale photonic AI datacenter connectivity solutions.

UK-based startup Salience Labs has raised $30 million in a Series A funding round to advance its photonic switching solutions for AI data centers. The salience labs funding round was led by ICM HPQC Fund and Applied Ventures, the venture arm of Applied Materials.

Other investors include Braavos, Strategic Investment Fund, and long-standing backers such as Oxford Sciences Enterprises, Silicon Catalyst, Cambridge Innovation Capital, and Jalal Bagherli, a semiconductor industry veteran.

Salience Labs aims to build optical switch technology designed to deliver high-bandwidth, low-latency, and energy-efficient connectivity for large-scale AI infrastructure. These developments are based on more than a decade of academic research from the University of Oxford and the University of Münster.

CEO and co-founder Vaysh Kewada shared that the funding will accelerate the company’s efforts to bring its product to market. "What our customers want is a photonic switch to connect their AI clusters that is compatible with existing infrastructure while delivering high bandwidth, low latency, and significant power savings."

Applied Ventures Vice President Anand Kamannavar echoed this, saying Salience's optical switch "has the potential to enable a new generation of interconnect network architectures for faster and more efficient AI systems."

The funding news also comes with leadership updates. Dr. William Jeffrey has joined Salience Labs’ board of directors. His background includes leadership roles at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Executive Office of the U.S. President, and SRI International.

Dr. Jeffrey joins other board members like Jack Edmondson of Oxford Sciences Enterprises and Daniel Armbrust, co-founder of Silicon Catalyst. Their combined expertise is expected to guide Salience Labs through the next phase of scaling.

Bonnie Tomei has also been appointed as CFO. She brings over 20 years of financial experience, including IPOs and de-SPACs. Based in Silicon Valley, Tomei’s role will be critical as the company expands to serve U.S. customers.

Kewada noted, “Ms. Tomei will be a key member of the executive team to realize our strategic and operational objectives, including expanding to the U.S. to serve our key customers.”

Salience Labs was founded in 2021 to solve performance bottlenecks in AI data centers using silicon photonics. Its switches are being designed to support scalable, high-performance networks that can meet the growing demands of AI workloads.

Dr. Jalal Bagherli, former CEO of Dialog Semiconductor and a key investor, praised the startup’s progress. “Salience Labs has done a tremendous job in developing a portfolio of innovative silicon photonics products... Their customer focused approach in addition to the technology makes Salience Labs a clear leader to win in this enormous market.”

The company says its photonic switches will allow unprecedented bandwidth and help reduce power usage and costs while ensuring seamless connectivity across large AI server clusters.

As AI systems continue to grow in complexity, the need for faster and more energy-efficient networking becomes increasingly critical. Salience Labs is positioning itself to play a key role in that evolution.

Dr. Jeffrey added that “Salience Lab’s optical switches will enable unprecedented bandwidth and scalability for the next generation of AI and high-performance data centers.”

With strong backing and a leadership team steeped in technical and business expertise, Salience Labs is preparing to take its technology from the lab to large-scale implementation.

The salience labs funding round marks a significant milestone in the company’s growth, as it works to redefine how AI clusters communicate in the era of high-performance computing.