October 2025 Mergers, Acquisitions and Investment Highlights

In October 2025, there were 20 recorded acquisitions. Five of them were led by European companies, while ten European firms were acquired.

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 October 2025.

Mergers & Acquisitions in Photonics

A total of twenty-two (22) M&As were recorded for the month of October. Out of these, two (2) were mergers between Axcelis (USA) and Veeco Instruments (USA) as well as that between Skyworks (USA) and Qorvo (USA).  The merger of Axcelis and Veeco Instruments came at an estimated value of $4.4 billion and it is expected that, together, the combined company will become a leading semiconductor equipment company. On the other hand, the Skyworks and Qorvo merger is estimated to create a $22 billion leader in “high-performance radio frequency (RF), analog and mixed-signal semiconductors.”

For the twenty (20) acquisitions recorded this October, five (5) were headed by acquiring companies based in Europe. Meanwhile, ten (10) European companies were likewise acquired during the period. Here are some of the notable M&As involving companies based in Europe:

• Helsing (Germany), a leading defense technology company, acquired Blue Ocean (Australia), a developer of autonomous underwater vehicles, to accelerate its maritime defense program.
• Basler (Germany), a computer vision specialist, acquired 76% stake of Alpha TechSys Automation (India) to expand its business in India and operate, eventually, under the name “Basler India.”
• Orbit (Italy), a software company with focus in “operational resilience, business continuity, and crisis management for mission-critical organizations”, was acquired by Nuburu (USA)  for $12.5 million to expand its defense and security hub.
• Xteg (Germany), a fiber laser cutting company, was acquired by Hymson (China) in a move that will strengthen Hymson’s footprint in the European laser cutting market.
• aiXscale Photonics (Germany), a supplier of ultra-high precision optical glass interposer solutions, was acquired by Astera Labs (USA) to help “scale-up photonic chiplets in AI Infrastructure 2.0” and accelerate its deployment of rack-scale solutions.
• Arduino (Italy), an open-source hardware and software company, was acquired by Qualcomm (USA) to help the latter accelerate developers’ access to its leading edge computing and AI.

Likewise observed in this month’s M&As are transactions between European companies. First off, there’s the acquisition by EPIC member ZEISS Vision Care (Germany) of 10% stake in Ocumeda (Germany) Fielmann Group for €100 million as part of its strategic plan to scale the leading tele-ophthalmology platform. Next is the acquisition of 9.8% of the share capital of EPIC member and France-based EXOSENS by another EPIC member Theon (Cyprus) for €268.7 million, and thereby making Theon the second largest shareholder in EXOSENS after Groupe HLD. Lastly, there’s the acquisition by solution provider for unmanned systems Quantum Systems (Germany) of Spleenlab (Germany), a specialized AI company, to accelerate autonomy across its portfolio.

It is to be noted as well that EPIC members have been actively involved in several M&As for this month. First off, there’s the acquisition by Theon (Cyprus) of the 9.8% share capital of fellow member of EPIC EXOSENS (France). As stated above, EPIC member ZEISS Vision Care (Germany) acquired fellow German company Ocumeda’s 10% stake. There’s also the acquisition of EPIC member Thorlabs (USA) of Nu Opto (USA) which is expected to expand Thorlabs’ photonics portfolio. Another EPIC member Excelitas (USA) acquired high-performance materials, substrates, components, and assemblies specialist Luxium Solutions (USA), thereby expanding its  technology and product offerings across diverse, high growth markets. Finland-based EPIC member OptoFidelity had its Mobile Device Testing Solutions portfolio acquired by Assurant (USA) in a strategic acquisition to expand its automation capabilities. Lastly, EPIC member Coherent’s Tools for Materials Processing Business Unit has been agreed to be acquired by fellow USA-based Bystronic, thereby helping the latter’s expansion into “additional attractive growth markets such as medical devices, semiconductors, and general manufacturing.”

Investments

For the month of October, twenty-three (23) investments were recorded. Thirteen (13) of these were secured by companies based in Europe, including the following:

• EnduroSat (Bulgaria), a leading aerospace manufacturer, raised $104 million to scale up its satellite production.
• Einride (Sweden), a provider of digital, electric, and autonomous solutions for road freight, secured $100 million in funding to accelerate autonomous freight.
• Energy Robotics (Germany), a provider of AI software platform for autonomous inspection with robots and drones, raised during a Series A round $13.5 million to drive commercial deployment of its software across various sectors.
• kiutra (Germany), a quantum computing company, raised €13 million to strengthen quantum supply chains with helium-3-free cooling.
• TiHive (France), a specialist in terahertz-AI vision systems, secured  €8 million in funding to accelerate its growth and international expansion.

In other parts of the world, these significant investments were likewise recorded:

• Stoke Space (USA) raised $510 million in a Series D round in order to accelerate its product development and expansion, particularly the scaling up the manufacturing of fully reusable Nova launch vehicle.

• POET Technologies (Canada), developer of advanced opto-electronic solutions, secured $75 million in its latest investment round to accelerate growth in AI connectivity solutions.
• Prisma Photonics (Israel) closed a $30 million funding round to finance its bid to drive the development of its AI-driven fiber sensing platform for power grid and security infrastructure.
• Vertical Semiconductor (USA), a spinout from MIT, raised $11 million in a seed funding round to develop vertical GaN (gallium nitride) transistors.

EPIC members also secured investments or invested in key transactions for this month of October. First, EPIC member Aluvia Photonics (The Netherlands), one of the leading developers of Aluminium Oxide (AlOx) photonic integrated circuits (PICs), secured funding from fellow member of EPIC PhotonDelta (The Netherlands) to expand the development of its technology and further foster its collaboration with PhotonDelta, one of the leading hubs for the integrated photonics industry. Second, there is the €8 million Series A funding raised by EPIC member LuxQuanta (Spain), a deep tech company specializing in quantum cybersecurity; the amount secured by LuxQuanta was raised by various investors, including another EPIC member Corning, and will be utilized to scale up its production as well as research and development in quantum technologies and integrated photonics, among others. Lastly, there is the Series A funding round (in the amount of $18 million) closed by member of EPIC Q.ANT (Germany), a pioneer in photonic processing for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC), to drive the development of a sustainable photonic AI infrastructure. The latest fund secured by Q.ANT was invested by Duquesne Family Office LLC, which joined several existing investors, including EPIC members TRUMPF and imec (thru its venture capital arm imec.xpand).

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.