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 December 2025.
Mergers & Acquisitions in Photonics
We are at the end of 2025 and M&As in photonics still keep on coming, marking a fruitful end of the year for the industry.
We have recorded this December a total of twenty-four (24) M&As. Two of these were mergers between Radiant Vision Systems (USA) and Konica Minolta Sensing Americas (USA) as well as that between Cobham Satcom (Denmark) and Gatehouse Satcom (Denmark). The merger by Radiant Vision, a leading provider of imaging systems for scientific evaluation of light sources and displays, with its sister company Konica Minolta Sensing Americas will result in the formation of a new company and enable the offering of a “broader portfolio of solutions” that customers can procure from a single source. The merger between Danish companies Cobham Satcom and Gatehouse Satcom merged is seen as a significant industry transition to “standardized 5G-based connectivity across commercial, government, defense, and emerging direct-to-device markets.”
For the twenty-two (22) acquisitions noted this December, ten (10) were made by acquiring companies based in Europe and eight (8) of these are between European companies. Meanwhile, there were also four (4) European companies that have been acquired by companies from the rest of the globe. Here are some of the notable M&As involving companies based in Europe:
- Hexagon, a measurement technologies company based in Sweden, acquired Germany-based IconPro and the latter’s industrial AI capabilities in order to improve asset monitoring.
- Wayve, a United Kingdom-based specialist in Embodied AI for autonomous driving, acquired German startup Quality Match “to strengthen data quality and safety for AI driving systems.”
- Kronen 3140 from Germany acquired 50.32% stake in the VIA Optronics Holding of another German company, Integrated Microelectronics (IMI), as a result of IMI’s strategic divestment and portfolio realignment strategy to improve its focus on “its core strengths in the automotive and industrial EMS sectors.”
- Indra, the leading defense, aerospace, and advanced digital technologies company from Spain, reached an agreement with CPS Group to acquire the unmanned systems (UAS) technology of another Spanish company Wake Engineering.
- AOS Technologies, a Switzerland-based manufacturer of high speed cameras and high speed streaming systems, was acquired by Japanese high-speed imaging solutions specialist Photron to improve its ability to innovate, expand its global reach, and deliver even greater value to partners and customers.
- Lyocon, an Italian photonics and laser-engineering company, was acquired by American blue laser company NUBURU for the expansion of the latter’s “European engineering footprint” and to facilitate its transformation into a “vertically integrated Defense & Security Technology Hub spanning lasers, RF systems, mobility platforms, and software-enabled defense architectures.”
- Blickfeld, a German 3D LiDAR sensor manufacturer, was acquired by Canada-based Senstar Technologies, expanding the latter’s ability “to serve a broader global customer base with a more holistic, best-in-class portfolio of intelligent security solutions.”
EPIC members participated in several M&As for this month and most of these transactions have been entered into by our members with European companies as well, highlighting the continued collaboration between the key players in the European photonics industry. All in all, there are seven (7) M&As for this month involving EPIC members as discussed further below:
- Physik Instrumente, a member of EPIC and precision motion and positioning technologies specialist from Germany, has entered into an agreement to be acquired by global technology company and Switzerland-based HOERBIGER. The transaction is seen as an advancement of PI’s “entrepreneurial ambitions in innovation and sustainable growth”; on the other hand, for HOERBIGER, the acquisition “will accelerate its transformation by providing the opportunity to expand into new growth markets.”
- Imagine Optic, EPIC member and French manufacturer of wavefront sensing, optical metrology and adaptive optics, acquired a multiphoton microscopy expert and another French company, Karthala System, in a transaction which will lead to the combination of both companies’ know-how in enhancing imaging performance.
- Fyla, an EPIC member and Spanish ultrafast lasers specialist, sold 24.8% of its stake to its fellow Spanish company and defense and aerospace giant Indra in a transaction which also involves significant investment from the latter’s venture capital arm Indraventures.
- EPIC member EssilorLuxottica from France acquired Belgian company Signifeye to advance its “med-tech trajectory” and accelerate its goal to “pioneer the most advanced, integrated and expert-driven medical model, capable of addressing the full continuum of need, from prevention and early detection to specialized clinical management.”
- EPIC member Philips from The Netherlands acquired USA-based SpectraWAVE to advance “next-generation coronary intravascular imaging and physiological assessment with AI.”
- Ireland-based EPIC member X-Celeprint acquired the manufacturing intellectual property and equipment assets from American X Display Company, particularly the latter’s next-generation production tool capability for heterogeneous integration using Micro-transfer Print (MTP).
- EPIC member Keystone Photonics from Germany was acquired by American semiconductor test and measurement supplier FormFactor. Keystone Photonics is a “pioneer in optical probing technology for silicon photonics (SiPh) and co-packaged optics (CPO) wafer testing,” and the acquisition will expand the Silicon Photonics test capabilities of FormFactor.
Marking the end of the year 2025 for the photonics industry are several big M&As. First, there’s the record-breaking deal between Marvell Technology (USA), a leading data infrastructure semiconductor solutions provider, and disruptive Photonic Fabric technology platform pioneer Celestial AI (USA) wherein the former acquired the latter for $3.25 billion in a strategic acquisition seen as a “transformational milestone” in accelerating Marvell Technology’s “connectivity strategy for next-generation AI and cloud data centers.” Defense company CACI (USA) acquired aerospace company ARKA (USA) for $2.6 billion to expand its “technology focus in space-based sensing and actionable intelligence.” Lastly, there’s the acquisition for $110 million by quantum optics and integrated photonics specialist Quantum Computing (USA) of Luminar Semiconductor (USA), a subsidiary of Luminar Technologies, in a transaction that will accelerate Quantum Computing’s road map by bringing into the company Luminar Semiconductor’s photonic technologies and specialist teams.
Investments
For the month of December, twenty-four (24) investments were recorded. Eleven (11) of these were secured by companies based in Europe, including the following:
- Generative Bionics (Italy), a startup from the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), secured €70 million in its latest funding round which will boost its goal of building a new generation of intelligent humanoid robots made in Italy.
- Nu Quantum (United Kingdom) raised $60 million in a Series A round to accelerate its goal “to reach fault tolerance by interconnecting quantum processors into a more powerful distributed quantum computer.”
- 3Deus Dynamics (France) closed €10 million in its latest funding round to help in expanding its “global commercial presence in the field of 3D silicone printing,” among others.
- Delft Circuits (The Netherlands), a specialist in high-density I/O solutions for quantum computers, secured €8 million in a Series A round to fuel its expansion.
In other parts of the globe, companies in photonics and related industries secured key investments, which are as follows:
- Galbot (China), one of the leading embodied AI and general-purpose robotics, secured $300 million in its recent funding round to fuel technology development, scale deployments, as well as to help in expanding its reach around the globe.
- Quantum Art (Israel) closed its Series A round with a $100 million funding to accelerate its push for scalable multi-core quantum computing.
- Horizon Quantum Computing (Singapore), a pioneer in software infrastructure for quantum applications, raised $110 million in a PIPE financing transaction wherein the investment shall be used to accelerate its research and development, boost its “hardware testbed,” and to further develop its “Triple Alpha development environment.”
- Mixx Technologies (USA) raised $33 million in a Series A funding round to accelerate the deployment of its pioneering AI Optical interconnect platform.
Of course, EPIC members were also among those that have secured key investments for December. First, there is the €200 million funding secured by EPIC member and Spain-based FYLA from its fellow Spanish company Indraventures, as previously discussed above. Sparrow Quantum, a member of EPIC from Denmark, secured €27.5 million in a Series A round for the development of its next generation of quantum chips and the realization of its goal to “making quantum technology accessible for industrial applications.” Lastly, Swiss start-up and EPIC member Enlightra raised $15 million in its latest funding round to fuel its mission “to build the future of energy-efficient laser links for AI and data centers.”
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.
