Dutch photonics startup eyeo says that it has secured €40 million in series A financing to advance development of its nanophotonic color-splitting technology, a platform aimed at improving the performance and efficiency of image sensors across a range of applications. The company, which is headquartered at High Tech Campus Eindhoven, spun out from Belgium-based nanoelectronics research organization imec and focuses on translating academic advances in nanophotonics into commercially viable sensor products.

The funding round brings the company’s total investment to €55 million and reflects growing interest in next-generation imaging systems for consumer electronics, automotive technology and industrial sensing.

Separating instead of filtering

eyeo’s technology aims to address limitations of traditional image sensors, which rely on color filters to block red, green and blue light in turn. In the process, these filters reject nearly 70% of the photons that could be captured by a color camera, reducing overall sensitivity and image quality, particularly in low-light conditions. eyeo says its proprietary Nanophotonic Color Splitting (NCOS) technology takes a different approach: Nanophotonic structures separate the light by wavelength and direct it to designated pixels rather than filtering it out.

According to the company, this process can triple light sensitivity and improve sensor resolution limits to deliver “unprecedented” image quality, color accuracy and resolution. The architecture is designed to increase the amount of usable light reaching the sensor, which could allow smaller cameras to achieve higher-quality imaging performance. Potential applications include smartphones, augmented- and virtual-reality devices, autonomous vehicles, medical imaging systems, industrial inspection tools and smart-city infrastructure.

The company is also positioning its technology as compatible with existing CMOS image sensor production methods, an approach intended to ease adoption within current semiconductor manufacturing ecosystems. By integrating into established fabrication processes, eyeo aims to reduce barriers to commercialization and support scalability for high-volume markets.

Funding boost

The series A round was led by Innovation Industries, with participation from existing investors including imec.xpand, Invest-NL, QBIC, High-Tech Gründerfonds, and Brabant Development Agency. The funding will support continued development of advanced sensor architectures, including work on next-generation 3D-stacked CMOS image sensors. eyeo plans to expand its engineering and chip design teams at facilities in Eindhoven and Antwerp, Belgium, while deepening collaborations with manufacturing and original equipment manufacturer partners. “The fresh funding will accelerate eyeo’s sensor design capabilities, deepen its OEM partner ecosystem, and drive commercial deployment across a $30 billion global imaging market,” announced the startup.

Investors involved in the funding round described eyeo’s technology as a potentially significant advance in semiconductor imaging, pointing to the company’s combination of photonics research and semiconductor engineering as a factor behind its commercial promise. “This is a powerful example of deep-tech innovation driving real structural progress in semiconductors, with implications that extend across the broader technology ecosystem,” said Nard Sinteni, partner at Innovation Industries.

“Every modern device that sees the world, from smartphones to autonomous systems, is held back by the same 50-year-old constraint,” said company cofounder and CEO Jeroen Hoet in a press release. “Eyeo removes it at the source. Our technology is proven, patented and validated at a commercial foundry, with tier-one customers already engaged. This €40 million round gives us what we need to scale.”