April 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 April 2025.

Mergers & Acquisitions in Photonics

A total of 18 M&As were recorded for this month world-wide. Four European companies played the role of acquiring companies while three corporations from Europe were acquired. A number of M&As between Europe-based companies were likewise observed, including:

• Comau’s acquisition of fellow Italy-based Automha, that is seen as a “further step in building a forward-focused Italian automation Hub” according to Comau.
• Sweden-based Mycronic Global Technologies division acquired RoBAT (United Kingdom), developer of “technology for fast and reliable tests of signal quality on PCBs.”
• D-Orbit, an Italy-based space logistics and orbital transportation leader, acquired Italian Earth Observation (EO), geospatial analytics, and mission software specialist Planetek.

EPIC members were likewise actively involved in various M&As for this month.  Member of EPIC Mycronic, as stated above, acquired UK-based RoBAT which will now form part of the PCB Test business line of the Global Technologies division of Mycronic. HORIBA STEC KOREA, a subsidiary of EPIC member HORIBA responsible for its semiconductor business in South Korea, acquired EtaMax (South Korea), a “developer, manufacturer, and seller of wafer inspection system for the semiconductor market.”

Rounding up the M&As for this month are some big acquisitions from all over the world:

• Thoma Bravo (USA) acquired Boeing’s Digital Aviation Solutions Business for $10.55 billion.
• Infineon (Germany) acquired the Automotive Ethernet business of US-based Marvell Technology  for $2.5 billion (in cash), including the Brightlane® Automotive Ethernet portfolio and related assets.
• MDA Space (Canada) acquired for $193 million ($2.10 per share) the Israeli company SatixFy, “a leader in next-generation satellite communication solutions based on in-house-designed chipsets.”

Investments

Funding for April continues to pour into photonics companies with twenty-four investment transactions for this month, with nine European companies securing needed capital to spur company growth. Here are some of the capital funding secured by Europe-based companies:

• Lumai (United Kingdom), an AI accelerator startup using optics to address global computational challenges, raised more than $10 million in a round participated by various investors.
• CMR Surgical (United Kingdom) secured $200 million to support the “global commercialisation of its Versius Surgical Robotic System” as well as to provide funding for continued development of the company’s surgical robotics innovation.
• DBR77 (Germany) closed its recent investment round for use in development of AI-based capabilities, among others.
• AlpsenTek (Switzerland), a machine vision sensor and algorithms specialist, successfully completed their Series B financing round to develop next-gen R&D for hybrid vision sensors.
• Azalea Vision (Belgium) raised €9 Million in a Series A round to develop intelligent connected vision platform.
• IXI (Finland) secured a Series A funding worth $36.5 million to develop autofocus eyewear with advanced optics and eye-tracking to enable optimal vision.

There are likewise big fundings secured by companies based outside Europe for this month. SandboxAQ (USA), for instance, secured a Series E $450 million funding from various investors to fuel its innovation in quantitative AI. Nuro (USA), autonomous driving technology specialist, raised $106 million to fuel the scaling up of its AI-based technology platform. BRINC Drones (USA) closed a $75 million funding round for development of next-generation drones. nEye Systems (USA) raised $58 million in a Series B round to revolutionize AI Infrastructure with breakthrough optical switch technology.

Of course, EPIC members also secured funding and/or made crucial investments to boost the industry. Photonic quantum chips supplier Sparrow Quantum (Denmark) secured a €21.5 million Series A investment to accelerate the development and commercialization of its quantum chip technology. mirSense (France), quantum-cascade lasers (QCLs) specialist, received a €7 million Series A funding from Safran Corporate Ventures and other investors. Taking part as investors are EPIC members PhotonVentures  and the venture-capital arm of EPIC member Hitachi (Hitachi Ventures). For PhotonVentures, it successfully participated in the recent round involving Netherlands-based Astrape Networks, which secured €7.9 million seed round funding to support its goal to “enhance datacenter efficiency, essential for expanding AI and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure and Europe’s digital sovereignty”. On the other hand, Hitachi Ventures participated in the funding round wherein Xaba (Canada) secured $6 million to fuel its goal to bring their AI-powered Cognitive Control platform (xCognition) to more robots and factories.

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.