August 2025 Mergers, Acquisitions and Investment Highlights

Photonics is experiencing a large boom leading to thousands of inventions and new applications. Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As) and investments play a critical role in sustaining the growth of the photonics industry. Read our summary of M&A deals and investments in the photonics industry for August 2025.

Mergers & Acquisitions in Photonics

We have passed the half-way mark of the year, but M&As in photonics keep on coming. For this month, a total of thirty (30) M&As were recorded. European companies are still very much active in taking part as acquiring or acquired company. This August, ten (10) companies based in Europe have acquired key players in photonics. On the other hand, fourteen (14) European companies were acquired this month. European cooperation and partnership in the photonics industry is evident with eight (8) M&As recorded for this month between EU companies as follows:

• Quantum, a Spanish startup, acquired 3D printing solutions specialist BCN3D (also from Spain) to “accelerate light industrial 3D Printing and secure long-term growth.”
• SBO (Austria) acquired 3T Additive Manufacturing (United Kingdom) in a strategic acquisition to enhance the latter’s delivery of “cutting-edge additive manufacturing solutions.”
• Destinus from The Netherlands, an aerospace company, acquired aviation AI solutions leader Daedalean from Switzerland. The acquisition will to expand Destinus’ artificial intelligence capabilities in flight systems.
• Dyer Engineering, engineering specialist based in the United Kingdom, acquired laser cutting company Q-Laser (also from the United Kingdom), which shall become part of the newly formed SST Group which Dyer has recently established after securing significant investment from NPIF II – Maven Equity Finance.
• Haylo Labs acquired Please Semiconductors in a transaction involving key players from the United Kingdom. Plessey is a recognized leader in the microLED display technology sector and the acquisition is expected to boost the position of the United Kingdom as “global leader in immersive computing and next-generation technology.”
• Theon, from Cyprus, acquired Germany-based Kappa Optronics, one of the known aviation and land optronics specialists. The acquisition shall improve Theon’s electro-optic platform-based products global footprint.
• Activ8 Energies, the leading solar panel provider in Ireland, acquired United Kingdom’s Low Carbon Energy in an acquisition seen to help expansion across the UK renewables sector.
• EssilorLuxottica, an EPIC member company from France, acquired Automation & Robotics (Belgium) to improve “high-performance solutions in ophthalmic manufacturing.”

EPIC members were likewise involved in M&As for this month. First, EPIC member Exosens (France) acquired fellow member of EPIC Phasics (USA). Exosens, a high-tech company specializing in delivering “mission and performance-critical amplification, detection and imaging technology”, enhanced its technological product portfolio with the acquisition of  Phasics, a recognized leader high performance cameras based solutions for optical metrology. Smart Precision Optics, an EPIC member based in Israel, had its 51% controlling interest acquired by autonomous drone and private wireless solutions provider and US-based Ondas, in an acquisition expected to improve Ondas’ advanced electro-optics capabilities. EPIC member Teledyne (USA) acquired the TransponderTech business of Saab (Switzerland) which will become part of Teledyne FLIR’s Maritime group. Lastly, there is the aforementioned acquisition by EPIC member EssilorLuxottica (France) of Automation & Robotics (Belgium).

Rounding up the M&As for the month of August are several big transactions across the globe. There’s the acquisition by AT&T (USA) of EchoStar, a US-based specialist and provider of satellite, mobile, and video technologies, for $23 billion to fuel its growth and maintain its position as leader in advanced connectivity across 5G and fiber. Next, there’s the already mentioned acquisition of Daedalean by Destinus for about $225 million. There’s also the acquisition by Theon (Cyprus) of Kappa Optronics (Germany) for €75 million and the acquisition of emotion3D (Austria) by indie Semiconductor (USA) for $20 million cash (in addition to $10 million performance based earnouts).

Investments

A total of twenty-three (23) investments were noted for the month of August. Of these, nine (9) were secured by European companies, including the following:

• Aerospacelab (Belgium), a leading satellite manufacturer, secured $110 million in Series B to fuel its industrial roadmap and solidify its position in the aerospace industry.
• Loft Dynamics (Switzerland), a virtual reality (VR) flight training expert, secured $24 million   in a Series B round in order to advance its mission to revolutionize pilot training with VR.
• Varjo (Finland), one of the leader in military-grade virtual and mixed reality solutions, raised $5.8 million from THEON in a strategic investment to drive its development of military-grade VR/XR innovation.
• Dyer Engineering (United Kingdom) secured £1.625 million from NPIF II – Maven Equity Finance and immediately set up SST Group, as mentioned previously above.
• Saga Robotics (Norway), the developer of Thorvald (a field-proven robotic platform for soft fruit and grapevine production), raised $11.2 million to be used in scaling its commercial operations in the United Kingdom and USA.

There were several other funding raised in other parts of the world, including some of these significant investments:

• Nuro (USA) raised $203 million in a Series E round to advance its autonomous driving technology.
• FieldAI (USA) secured $405 million to develop embodied AI at scale.
• OpenLight (USA) raised $34 million in Series A to “scale next-gen integrated photonics for AI data centers.”
• FORT Robotics (USA) obtained $18.9 million in Series B to support its mission to further innovate safety for robotics and physical AI.
• Kopin (USA) secured $15 million from Theon as part of the latter’s strategic investment to fuel its objective of building global leadership in “Digital and Augmented Reality defense optronics.”

EPIC members likewise secured investments or played the part of investor for the month of August. Fluence (Poland) secured $7.7 million to support its development in the industrial, medical, and scientific research sectors and its expansion internationally. PowerPhotonic (United Kingdom) likewise obtained from Maven Capital Partners £2.6 million to help scale its operations in the United Kingdom and USA. Lastly, EDGX (Belgium) secured €2.3 million from various investors, including from EPIC member imec’s venture capital arm imec.istart.

Note: The mergers and acquisitions (M&As) as well as the investments compiled in this article are based on information readily available at the date of the publication of this article. EPIC shall update the article whenever it comes across publication of other transactions after the release of this article. Readers are encouraged to inform EPIC in case of an omission of a particular M&A or investment for the subject month. Feel free to give us an email at info@epic-photonics.com for inquiries.