- Fresh funding will support a new Shanghai lab, hiring and mass production of chip-scale spectrometers
- The Cambridge spinout is betting on computational spectroscopy as silicon photonics expands beyond AI data centers
Glitterin Tech (光引科技), a Chinese developer of silicon photonic integrated chips, has raised 100 million yuan ($14.7 million) in a pre-Series A financing round to accelerate commercialization of its chip-scale spectrometer technology, Chinese tech media outlet 36Kr reported on July 4.
The round was backed by investors including Xi’an Guangzi Qianglian Fund, Shanda Capital, Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Fund, Luoyang Entrepreneurial Fund, CAS Star and Xi’an Finance Investment Management.
The proceeds will fund a new laboratory in Shanghai, talent recruitment and preparations for mass production.
Led by Cambridge faculty members
Founded in 2021 in Xuzhou, Glitterin Tech was spun out of a research team at University of Cambridge. It focuses on the design and fabrication of spectral chip, or spectrometer-on-a-chip, a miniaturized sensor that measures the electromagnetic spectrum.
The startup is led by founder Cheng Qixiang (程祺翔), a Cambridge PhD and associate professor. Cheng has spent more than 16 years working on photonic integration and previously worked with HiSilicon, Huawei’s chip affiliate.
The company’s chief scientist is Richard Penty, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and head of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering.
Spectrometer-on-a-chip
Rather than relying on prisms or diffraction gratings used in conventional spectrometers, Glitterin Tech employs a computational spectroscopy approach.
Its chip encodes incoming light through on-chip sampling units before reconstructing the full spectrum using algorithms, allowing laboratory-scale optical instruments to be miniaturized into a 2 mm × 2 mm silicon chip.
According to the company, its spectral chip covers wavelengths from 600 to 2,500 nanometers with resolution of up to 0.01 nanometers—well above the typical 1 to 20 nanometer resolution of conventional miniature spectrometers.
The company estimates production costs could fall below $20 per chip, compared with $100 to $2,000 for mainstream spectrometer modules currently on the market.
Booming silicon photonics sector
The fundraising comes as silicon photonics gains momentum globally. According to market research firm LightCounting, 2026 is expected to mark the first year that silicon photonics modules account for more than 50% of the optical module market, representing a key industry inflection point.
Meanwhile, semiconductor-focused market research firm Yole Group forecasts the global silicon photonics market will expand from US$278 million in 2024 to US$2.7 billion by 2030, representing a compound annual growth rate of 46%.
Consumer-facing applications
The rapid expansion of AI computing clusters is driving demand for faster, more energy-efficient optical interconnects, accelerating the adoption of silicon photonics beyond data centers into consumer electronics, autonomous driving and medical sensing.
Against this backdrop, Glitterin Tech said it has already entered the supply chains of companies including L’Oréal, Huawei and Xiaomi. It is co-developing a device with L’Oréal to measure skin collagen levels, while also collaborating with Huawei and Xiaomi on chip and algorithm integration.
In industrial applications, the company is working with liquor producers to monitor alcohol concentration, starch and reducing sugar levels during fermentation using optical sensors.
Foray into photonic switching
The company is also expanding beyond optical sensing into optical switching and optical computing, as silicon photonics finds wider applications in AI infrastructure, consumer electronics, autonomous driving and medical diagnostics.
It plans to establish a Shanghai team later this year to develop silicon photonic switching technologies, which it targets as the next growth engine.
