36Kr Exclusive | Cambridge Associate Professor Launches Silicon Optical Chip Startup, Partnered with L'Oréal and Huawei, Secured 100 Million Yuan in Investment

Image source/Enterprise

Author: Ou Xue

Editor: Yuan Silai

Yingke learned that OptoGuide Technology, a developer of silicon-based optoelectronic integrated chips, recently completed a Pre-A round of financing worth 100 million yuan. The investors include Photon Strong Chain Fund, Shanda Investment, Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Fund, Luoyang Talent Fund, Zhongke Chuangxing, and Xi'an Financial Investment. The funds will be mainly used for the construction of a new laboratory in Shanghai, talent recruitment, and mass production promotion.

OptoGuide Technology was founded in Xuzhou in 2021. Its core team was incubated from a research and development team at the University of Cambridge in the UK. The founder, Cheng Qixiang, is a doctor and associate professor at the University of Cambridge. He has been deeply involved in the field of photonic integration for over 16 years and once worked in the optoelectronics team of HiSilicon. Many members of the company's core technology team are from the University of Cambridge, and the proportion of master's/doctoral degree holders reaches 66%.

According to QYResearch data, the global market size of micro and mini spectrometers was approximately $460 million in 2024 and is expected to reach $822 million by 2031, with a compound annual growth rate of 8.8%. Among them, chip-type spectrometers occupy the largest market share and are mainly used in fields such as wearable devices, cameras, and smartphones.

According to a report by The Business Research Company, the micro spectrometer market is expected to grow from $1.18 billion in 2025 to $2.15 billion in 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 12.8%. The application of wearable spectrometers is one of the main growth drivers.

OptoGuide Technology focuses on the design of silicon-based optoelectronic chips and spectral sensing solutions. Its product form is a miniaturized spectral sensing module, which can be applied in scenarios such as human health detection in wearable devices, skin detection in medical aesthetics, and material detection in industry and food.

Compared with traditional desktop spectrometers, OptoGuide Technology integrates a precision optical system onto a chip the size of a grain of rice and adopts the technical route of a "computational spectrometer".

Traditional spectrometers rely on physical light-splitting elements such as prisms or gratings and require precise optical structures and mechanical components. They have strict environmental requirements and high costs. In contrast, a computational spectrometer encodes the incident light through sampling units on the chip and then uses algorithms to reconstruct the complete spectral information from a small amount of measurement data, thereby significantly reducing the volume and cost.

According to the company, its spectral chip has a wavelength coverage range of 600 - 2500nm, a maximum resolution of 0.01nm, and is the size of a grain of rice. It is estimated that the cost after mass production can be controlled within $20. In comparison, the prices of currently mainstream spectral module products in the market are mostly in the range of $100 - $2000, and their sizes vary from the size of a fingernail to that of a charger.

Xu Kangning, the vice president of OptoGuide Technology, told Yingke that the company's current major customers include leading enterprises such as L'Oréal, Huawei, and Xiaomi. This includes jointly developing equipment to detect the collagen content in the skin with L'Oréal and carrying out cooperation on electric drive chips and algorithm adaptation with Huawei and Xiaomi. In addition, in the industrial field, the company has also cooperated with several wineries to use spectral sensors to monitor changes in substances such as alcohol content, starch, and reducing sugar during the fermentation process.

In the next few years, the company expects to accelerate the mass production of its products, continuously send samples to leading customers for verification, and gradually gain market recognition.

The following is an excerpt from the conversation between Yingke and Xu Kangning (edited):

Yingke: What are the main difficulties since the products have not been mass-produced yet?

Xu Kangning: The spectral sensing track we are in is very special. There is no industrial chain in the industry that fully meets our technology. There are no fully matching light sources, packaging technologies, or testing equipment. We need to build our own unique processes and production lines. Currently, about 80% of our requirements can be covered by suppliers in the market, and the remaining 20% requires us to purchase equipment, train personnel, and develop processes on our own.

Yingke: Compared with the existing PPG (photoplethysmogram) solution, what are the differences in price and performance of the company's technology?

Xu Kangning: Our technical solution is about 2 to 5 times more expensive than the PPG module in existing smartwatches, depending on the measurement indicators and application fields. However, we can measure more parameters with higher accuracy and are an upgraded alternative to PPG.

The traditional PPG technology mainly relies on photoplethysmogram signals, and the parameters it can measure are limited to a few indicators such as heart rate and blood oxygen. In contrast, spectral sensing can detect various biomarkers such as collagen, blood sugar, lactic acid, and alcohol. Our goal is to integrate spectral sensors into all smartwatches to achieve the vision of a "wrist clinic".

Yingke: The company has made a major strategic adjustment this year. Is it planning to enter the optical switching field?

Xu Kangning: Yes. Our technological foundation is silicon-based optoelectronics. The three major directions of the Cambridge team are optical switching, optical sensing, and optical computing. The company previously focused on the sensing field. Starting this year, we will focus on establishing a team in Shanghai to develop products in the field of silicon-based optoelectronic optical switching.

Silicon photonics technology is experiencing rapid growth in the optical communication field. According to industry forecasts, the share of silicon photonics technology in the optical module market will double from 30% in 2025 to 60% in 2030. Our founder also worked on optical switching for many years in the early stage. This is a field he is very familiar with and is also an important second growth curve for the company in the future.

Views of the investors:

View of Zhongke Chuangxing: As one of the early investors in OptoGuide Technology, we have firmly believed in this team since the Angel + round. Along the way, the company has grown far beyond our expectations, and we are full of confidence in OptoGuide's future.

View of Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Fund: OptoGuide Technology's technical accumulation in the field of optical chips is highly complementary to Yangtze's industrial resources. The two parties have close cooperation in industrial chain synergy and look forward to jointly promoting the upgrading of the optical communication industry.

View of Shanda Investment: We are very glad to see the emergence of an excellent hard technology company like OptoGuide Technology in Xuzhou. From its establishment to growth, we have witnessed the team's solid R & D capabilities and execution, which are representative of Xuzhou's scientific and technological innovation strength.

View of Xi'an Financial Investment: OptoGuide Technology has a solid core technological barrier and is of key value in the process of domesticating optical chips. We continue to be optimistic about the company's technological route and look forward to it becoming an industry benchmark.

View of Photon Strong Chain Fund: OptoGuide Technology is a key link in the photon industrial chain. Its optical chip technology has important strategic value for strengthening and supplementing the industrial chain. We firmly support the company in breaking through core technologies and helping the domestic photon industry achieve self - controllability.