For years, one of the Dutch government's primary objectives has been to accelerate the development of new companies. In order to stimulate company formation and company growth, PhotonDelta has two complementary financing instruments at its disposal. The Startup Fund, worth €60M and supported by the National Growth Fund, focuses on the earliest phase and offers pre-seed loans and innovation vouchers to help young teams move from research to their first steps in the market.
For companies reaching the next stage of growth, there is PhotonVentures, a fund of approximately €100M that was established in 2022 and has already attracted international investors. This fund provides venture capital to startups and scale-ups that want to industrialize and scale up their technology. Together, the Startup Fund and PhotonVentures ensure a continuous pipeline of new companies, attract private investment, and enable the supply chain to renew and strengthen itself.
PhotonDelta: a Photontics Growth Accelerator
PhotonDelta is a non-profit organization that acts as a growth accelerator for the integrated photonics industry. It supports an ecosystem of companies, knowledge institutions, and investors who work together to develop new technologies and solutions based on photonic chips (Photonic Integrated Circuits, PICs).
PhotonDelta helps this ecosystem move forward by stimulating collaboration, financing start-ups and scale-ups, developing shared innovation infrastructure, and strengthening connections with international markets. PhotonDelta now has offices in the Netherlands and the US and plays a central role in the global development of the integrated photonics industry.
Early in its' development, PhotonDelta recognized that the US is a leader in the application of integrated photonics, with strong market adoption in data centers, telecommunications, defense, and medical technology, and with an unparalleled investment base and industrial scale. The Netherlands, on the other hand, has a technological advantage with InP and SiN platforms–and a complete ecosystem of design, packaging, and pilot production.
It is precisely the combination of US market and investment power with Dutch technology that presents a strategic opportunity. For this reason, PhotonDelta is preparing a Strategic Market Mission together with partners, the preparation of which is being financed through the Pre-PPS program Photonics USA until early 2026. This program includes market studies, networking receptions, and workshops with US experts.
The PhotonDelta office in Silicon Valley serves as a local anchor point, working closely with the Dutch embassy and foreign posts in the US. This will enable validated input to be gathered for the SMM application and strategic partnerships to be established, thereby securing the Netherlands structural access to US end markets and laying a solid foundation for a multi-year Public-Private Partnership program starting in 2026.
An Agreement Signed With Dutch Companies
In December of 2018 a covenant was signed in which Dutch companies, knowledge institutions, and governments pledged a total of €236M in cash and in-kind resources. The initial aim of this collaboration was to exploit the leading knowledge position in the field of integrated photonics–thereby building a stronger economic position in the world.
The partners of PhotonDelta together form a coherent and cooperative industrial cluster, with design, development, and production taking place within the supply chain. The ambitions and strategy for 2019-2026 are laid down in the "National PhotonDelta Plan", which is structured around four strategic pillars. The PhotonDelta Foundation is the implementing organization for this plan and commenced its activities on January 1, 2019.
In April of 2022 the Growth Fund Program for integrated photonics was awarded to PhotonDelta. The total size of the program is €1.1B, of which €470M comes from the National Growth Fund, while the rest is co-invested by various partners and stakeholders. It's a part of the Dutch government's national plan to strengthen and expand the country's position as a world leader in integrated photonics.