March 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&As deals and investments in the photonics industry for March 2025.

Mergers & Acquisitions in Photonics

A total of 23 M&As were recorded for this month world-wide. 10 European companies played the role of acquiring companies while 9 corporations from Europe were acquired. Several M&As between Europe-based companies were likewise observed, including: 

• Gleamer, leading company in AI medical imaging based in France, acquired France-based MRI AI innovators Caerus Medical and Pixyl. 

• Quantum Systems (Germany) acquires AirRobot (Germany) to expand its “product portfolio in drone technology.”  

• ALLOS Semiconductor (Germany) acquires AZUR SPACE Solar Power’s GaN IP portfolio (Germany). 

• Hymson (Switzerland) acquires the laser plastic welding business of Leister, also from Switzerland. 

EPIC members were actively involved in various M&As this month. EPIC member Viavi (USA) agreed to acquire from US-based Keysight Technologies the High-Speed Ethernet and Network Security Testing Business of Spirent Communications for $410 million. Callista (Germany) Carl Zeiss Automated Inspection, a subsidiary of German EPIC member ZEISS, and the new company shall be known as “Newston Automated Solutions GmbH.” New Zealand-based EPIC member Quantifi Photonics agreed to be acquired by Teradyne (USA), enabling the latter to “deliver scalable photonic integrated circuit (PIC) test solutions.” Mycronic (Sweden), acquired Hprobe (France), a specialist in Magnetoresistive Random Access Memories (MRAMs) and magnetic sensors. Lastly, Black Semiconductor (Germany)acquired Nanolayers (The Netherlands), an applied graphene specialist, to support the development of “energy-efficient, high-performance chip technology.  

Rounding up the M&As for this month are some big acquisitions. First is onsemi’s proposal to acquire Allegro MicroSystems at $35.10 per share or an estimated total of $6.9 billion. Another is the acquisition by SoftBank (Japan) of “leading independent silicon design company” Ampere (USA) for $6.5 billion. Alcon from Switzerland also acquired US-based Lensar for $430 million. Rocket Lab (USA) acquired laser communications provider Mynaric (Germany) for $75 million.  

Investments

Funding for March is getting traction with 40 investments for this month, with 22 European companies scoring big with much-needed funding boost. Here are some of the capital funding secured by Europe-based companies: 

• Axelera AI (The Netherlands) – €61.6 million funding from EuroHPC Joint Undertaking for the development of scalable AI shipment for high-performance computing. 

• Sateliot (Spain) – €70 million Series B capital from Hyperion to solidify its status as the “world’s first 5G-IoT telecommunications operator from space.” 

• Pangea Aerospace (Spain) –  €23 million raised from Hyperion Fund, Primo Capital, CDTI Innvierte and André-Hubert Roussel in a Series A round.               

• Brainomix (United Kingdom) – Series C €16.7 million funding raised for the advancement of AI imaging technology in healthcare.                  

• Alpine Eagle (Germany) – €10.25 million seed funding round capital was raised to develop AI-powered counter-drone defence system. 

Quantum-computing EU companies likewise scored big on funding for this month. Among the capital funding in this sector are those secured by Quantum Industries (Austria) for $10 million to advance quantum-secure communications for critical infrastructure and QuantWare (The Netherlands), with €20 million Series A capital raised to “create the world’s most powerful quantum processors.” The European Innovation Council also invested heavily on some European quantum-computing companies, such as Delft Networks (The Netherlands), CubIQ  (The Netherlands), Quobly (France), Delft Circuits (The Netherlands), ThinkQuantum (Italy), and Silent Waves (France). 

Several non-European companies secured significant investments for this month, including: 

• Apptronik (USA) – $403 million Series A funding to “fuel production and deployment of Apptronik’s AI-powered humanoid robot Apollo.” 

• The Bot Company (USA) – $150 million was secured by the robotics startup.  

• Lumafield (USA) – $75 million capital secured in Series C round from IVP, G2 Venture Partners, Wellington Management and other investors. 

• Novarc (Canada) – $50 million raised in a Series B round to “accelerate development and commercialization of intelligent adaptive welding systems for cobots and articulated robots.” 

• MemryX (USA) – $44 million secured for the advancement of advanced edge AI computing. 

Also some EPIC members secured funding and/or made crucial investments to fuel the industry.    

• CamGraPhIC (Italy) – secured €25 million (Series A) for use in “innovation in graphene photonics transceivers.” The capital of the Italy-based subsidiary of 2D Photonics was secured from several investors, including the venture capital arms of EPIC members Bosch (Bosch Ventures) and Sony (Sony Innovation Fund).  

• ATLANT 3D (Denmark) – $15 million capital raised in Series A round led by West Hill Capital. 

• eleQtron (Germany) – €12.5 million secured from the European Innovation Council to fuel its MAGICAL project (All-integrated on-chip ion trap towards fault-tolerant quantum computing).  

• Zero Point Motion (United Kingdom) – £4 million secured in Pre-Series round as the company emerges from stealth mode and for use in fueling the development of “next-generation positioning and navigation sensors.

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.