Mergers & Acquisitions and Capital Summary (January-February 2025)

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 from January and February 2025.

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.

For January and February 2025, below is the summary of M&As and investments in the photonics industry.

Mergers & Acquisitions in Photonics

January 2025

For January 2025, a total of 25 M&As took place world-wide. A significant number of European companies participated either as acquiring or acquired company. All in all, 11 European companies acted as acquiring companies and 15 European companies were acquired. These include the following below:

• Indra (Spain) acquired Hispasat (Spain)
• Patria (Finland) acquired ILIAS Solutions (Belgium)
• SICK (Germany) acquired Accerion (The Netherlands)
• Rheinmetall (Germany) acquired blackned (Germany)
• Hexagon (Sweden) acquired CAD Service (Italy) and Septentrio (Belgium)
• Hiphen (France) acquired Aurea Imaging (The Netherlands – Digital Phenotyping Activities only)
• Fiber Optics Group (France) acquired IDIL Fibres Optiques (France)
• EssilorLuxottica (France) acquired Pulse Audition (France)
• Headwall (USA) acquired EVK (Austria)
• Curtiss-Wright (USA) acquired Ultra Energy (United Kingdom)

Non-European companies were also active in M&A transactions for January 2025. 11 US-based companies acted as acquiring companies while 10 companies from the USA were acquired. Asian companies are likewise involved in M&A transactions for the month of January 2025 with LG Electronics (South Korea) buying out Bear Robotics (USA) and Park Systems (South Korea) acquiring Lyncée Tec (Switzerland).

EPIC members were among those who took part in M&As for January 2025. A total of 3 M&As involved both EPIC members as acquiring and acquired company. First, Germany-based member 4JET acquired Corning Laser Technologies (also from Germany), a transaction expected to make 4JET “a market and technology leader for laser-based glass processing in Europe and North America.” French EPIC member Exail expanded its photonics expertise with its acquisition of Leukos (Switzerland), a specialist in advanced laser sources for metrology, spectroscopy, and imaging applications. Lastly, Edmund Optics (USA), one of the long-time members of EPIC, acquired son-x (Germany), a leader in ultrasonic assist systems and high-precision optics manufacturing, to enhance its manufacturing capabilities.

EPIC member Thorlabs (USA) likewise acquired non-member and VCSELs specialist US-based company Praevium Research. Lastly, another key member Ansys (USA) sold its PowerArtist business to Keysight (USA), one of the leading companies in design and simulation software for semiconductors, electronics and high-performance systems. Finally, new EPIC Member HEF (France) acquired TELIC (USA), which it considered as a “key step for the expansion of our HEF photonics division in North America.”

Check the list of all the M&A in January 2025.

February 2025

February M&As are relatively quiet with only a total of 18. For Europe, companies involved in M&As as acquiring or acquired companies are:

• NXP Semiconductors (The Netherlands) which had a definitive agreement to acquire Kinara (USA) for $307 million. The acquisition will establish a “scalable platform for AI-powered edge systems”.
• Fugro (The Netherlands) acquired EOMAP (Germany), a “market leader in mapping and monitoring of marine and freshwater environments through satellite Earth Observation (EO).”
• MEI (Italy), a producer of “lens-edging machines and innovative solutions for the optical industry”, bought minority share of flō Optics (Israel).
• Trymax (The Netherlands) had its majority stake acquired by Accuron Technologies (Singapore).
• AMETEK (USA) acquired Kern Microtechnik (Germany), a leading high-precision machining and optical inspection solutions manufacturer.
• IonQ (USA) acquired ID Quantique (Switzerland), a leader in quantum safe networking and sensing.
• cloudfluid (Germany) was acquired by nTop (USA) to boost its computational fluid dynamics.
• EssilorLuxottica (France) acquired Cellview Imaging (Canada), widening their portfolio of ophthalmic instruments and solutions.
• Sumitomo (Japan) acquired Belgium-based Syensqo’s LCP neat resin business.

EPIC member Jabil (USA) acquired Pii (USA), adding a “comprehensive portfolio of pharmaceutical development and manufacturing services to Jabil’s current healthcare solutions.”

Other notable M&As for the month of February 2025 are:

• LightPath Technologies (USA) acquired high-end infrared camera systems manufacturer G5 Infrared (USA) for $27.0 million.
• Seagate Technology (USA) had a definitive agreement to acquire thin-film processing system supplier Intevac (USA).

Check the list of all the M&A in February 2025

Investments

January 2025

The year 2025 likewise started hot for investments in the photonics industry with about 47 capital funding secured by various companies worldwide. On the European front, 17 companies received funding to fuel their growth. Among these are:

• NEURA Robotics (Germany) – Series B €120 million funding for development of cognitive and humanoid robotics vision.
• Alice & Bob (France) – €100 million Series B investment to fuel its objective to “build the world’s first useful quantum computer by 2030.”
• Swave Photonics (Belgium) – €27 million Series A funding to “catalyze the advancement of its Holographic eXtended Reality (HXR) platform.”
• Sereact (Germany) – €25 million raised in Series A round to boost AI-powered robotics.
• RhyGaze (Switzerland) – Secured $86 million in a Series A funding round to develop its “novel gene therapy for optogenetic vision restoration in diseases causing blindness.”
• Orbex (United Kingdom) – £20 million was secured in a Series D fundraising by the spaceflight company.

EPIC members were likewise active in securing and/or providing funding to stimulate industry growth. These include:

• Coherent (USA), Corning (USA), and Infinera (USA) were able to secure direct funding from the U.S. Department of Commerce (through the CHIPS and Science Act) amounting to $79 million, $32 million, and $93 million, respectively.
• iPronics (Spain) raised €20 million in a Series A round to advance optical networking for next-gen AI data centers.
• imec (France), on the other hand, made an investment in RhyGaze mentioned above.
• Lastly, the European Space Agency made a couple of funding for Thales Alenia Space (France) and SatVu (United Kingdom) for €862 million and €244,853, respectively.

February 2025

For the month of February, a total of 46 investments worldwide. Of these, 17 European companies were able to secure needed funding. These include the following:

• ATMOS Space Cargo (Germany) – €13.1 million funding secured from the European Innovation Council.
• OQ Technology (Luxembourg) – €2.5 million (grant) and €15 million (equity financing) secured from the European Innovation Council (EIC).
• DPhi Space (Switzerland) – Raised CHF2.1 million in a Pre-seed Round.
• Wooptix (Spain) – $10.4 million in a Series C round was raised by one of the leaders in semiconductor metrology from Samsung Venture Investment and other investors.
• ColibriTD (France) – Secured a strategic investment from SEALSQ for integration of ColibriTD’s quantum-as-a-service platform to SEALSQ’s Quantum Roadmap.
• SAEKI (Switzerland) – $6.7 million raised to revolutionize large-scale manufacturing.
• EnSilica (United Kingdom) – Secured a £10.38 million funding from the UK Space Agency for development of satellite broadband terminal chips.
• Equal1 (Ireland) – TNO invested in the Irish quantum startup with growing operations in The Netherlands.
• Salience Labs (United Kingdom) – $30 million in Series A funding round was secured by the leader in “photonic solutions targeting connectivity for AI datacenter infrastructure.”
• Quantum Machines         (Israel) – Raised $170 million in Series C funding by the one of the leading providers of advanced quantum control solutions.
• Nomagic (Poland) –          $44 million investment was secured by one of the top provider of AI powered robotics for warehouses and the fulfillment sector.

Of course, EPIC members are also involved in some of the investment transactions for this month:

• Pixel Photonics (Germany) secured a €1 million funding for multi-mode single photon detection from the German Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation (SPRIND).
• Applied Materials Ventures, the venture capital arm of EPIC member Applied Materials (USA), participated in the round of investment with Salience Labs.
• TNO (The Netherlands) likewise invested in Equal1, as mentioned above.
• QDI Systems (The Netherlands) secured funding from the European Innovation Council under the EIC Accelerator Challenge program accelerate quantum dot image sensor technology.
• Pixieray (Finland) also received funding from the EIC to bring adaptive eyewear to reality.
• VoxelSensors (Belgium) also secured EIC funding to fuel their innovative vision.
• Lastly, the European Commission awarded €227 million to ams-OSRAM (Austria) through the European Chips Act to fund its semiconductor manufacturing facility.

Rounding up investments in photonics for this month are a couple of big capital fundings, including the following:

• Apptronik (USA) – Secured $350 million in Series A round to scale production of AI-powered humanoid robots.
• QuEra Computing (USA) – $230 million raised to accelerate the development and production of large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers.
• Stratasys (USA) – $120 million was secured by one of the leaders in polymer 3D printing solutions.
• EnCharge AI (USA) – $100 million in Series B funding was raised to advance the commercialization of its first client computing-focused AI accelerator products.        

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.