Thin-Film Lithium Niobate Firm Xili Photonics Completes Pre-A Round Worth Over RMB 100 Million

Xili Photonics recently closed a Pre-A round of financing worth over 100 million yuan. The round was led by Futeng Capital, with participation from Shanghai Future Industry Fund, Cornerstone Capital, Greater Bay Area Fund, Tianji Capital, Shenzhen Industrial Investment and listed company Zhiwei Intelligent. Light Source Capital served as exclusive financial advisor.

The funds will be used mainly for continued R&D in thin-film lithium niobate photonic chips and system-on-chip integration technology, advancing core product iteration, wafer-level process collaboration and mass-production validation, and accelerating cooperation with industry-chain partners in AI data centers, optical modules and communications equipment.

Why did an optics company founded in January 2025 manage to secure such a large round of financing? What are its strengths?

Start with the company's team. Founder Cheng Wang holds a bachelor's degree in microelectronics from Tsinghua University and a PhD in electrical engineering from Harvard University, where he studied under Professor Marko, an internationally renowned scholar in lithium niobate photonics. He is one of the leading pioneers of thin-film lithium niobate photonics worldwide and a core inventor of thin-film lithium niobate electro-optic modulators. He was previously a co-founder of HyperLight, a thin-film lithium niobate photonic chip company.

The core team comes from Harvard University, City University of Hong Kong and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with full-stack capabilities spanning materials R&D, wafer-level process technology, chip design and device engineering. In foundational platform technologies, this combination of "research origin plus engineering translation" expertise is itself a high barrier to competition.

Looking at the product portfolio, Xili Photonics has built a systematic lineup around thin-film lithium niobate as its core technology platform, covering multi-wavelength frequency comb light sources, high-speed electro-optic modulator chips, coherent IQ modulator chips, and photonic engines for different transmission distances and interconnect architectures.

The current products support single-wavelength 400G and 1.6T/3.2T rates, offering ultrafast electro-optic response, low drive voltage and low loss. A unified wafer-level process enables cross-product reuse of underlying technology, supporting optical interconnect needs across all scenarios from intra-rack links to metro networks. This "one material platform plus multiple product lines" architecture means the company can rapidly reuse technology and iterate products across different interconnect scenarios, reducing the commercialization risk of relying on a single product line.

Notably, engineering progress is advancing. Xili Photonics has established a complete industrial loop spanning materials R&D, collaborative wafer processing and system product deployment, and has completed on-site deployment in Hong Kong.

The company previously secured a new round of financing from Lenovo Capital in May 2026, with the funds likewise focused on increasing the integration and engineering capabilities of its photonic chip platform and advancing wafer-level manufacturing and mass-production validation. The continued upgrading of the investor lineup, from Lenovo Capital to this round led by Futeng Capital, reflects capital market recognition of its path from technology validation to mass production.

Behind the capital rush lies a structural opportunity emerging in the thin-film lithium niobate sector. Futeng Capital's rationale is that thin-film lithium niobate is the next-generation core photonic material for breaking through the speed and energy-efficiency ceilings of existing solutions, while Xili Photonics' commercialization path has been proven in practice and has a foundation for scalable replication.

Viewed over a longer time horizon, the significance of this financing extends beyond the company itself. The global thin-film lithium niobate optical modulator market remains in the early stages of commercialization, with global revenue of about 236 million yuan in 2025, and the industry is at a critical window in moving from the laboratory to volume manufacturing. Whoever first clears the engineering hurdles of yield and cost is poised to take the lead in the competition over material systems for next-generation optical interconnects.

Xili Photonics' latest round of financing explicitly targets wafer-level process collaboration and mass-production validation, squarely addressing this core challenge. The future looks promising.