Vexlum, a Finnish manufacturer of advanced semiconductor lasers, has secured €10 million in funding to scale its proprietary semiconductor chip manufacturing and laser technology operations. The round consists of €6 million in equity investment led by Kvanted, with participation from Tesi and the EIC Fund, alongside a €2.4 million grant from the EIC Accelerator and a €1.6 million loan from Nordea.
Addressing Critical Technology Bottleneck: its semiconductor-based Vertical-External-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser technology addresses a critical bottleneck in high-tech industries: the lack of compact, cost-effective, high-power laser sources at precise wavelengths. Applications requiring such lasers include atomic clocks, quantum computers, next-generation semiconductor metrology, and free-space optical communication technology.
The company is expanding its manufacturing capabilities in Finland to ensure quality and speed as it responds to strong market demand following the introduction of several product lines. The funding allows Vexlum to move beyond boutique production to industrial-scale capability.
Vertical Integration: Its chip fabrication starts with molecular beam epitaxy, where semiconductor wafers are grown in a reactor, atomic layer by atomic layer — comparable to 3D printing on an atomic scale. Unlike the silicon used in traditional electronics, Vexlum utilizes III-V semiconductor materials such as gallium arsenide, indium phosphide, and gallium antimonide to produce laser wafers for specific wavelengths.
The wafers are fabricated into laser chips in a specialized cleanroom, after which quality-controlled chips are integrated into laser systems to generate laser light. This vertical integration in a facility owned by Vexlum allows the company to control the entire value chain — from chip manufacturing to the final laser system — and address customer needs more responsively.
Expanding Beyond Quantum Computing
Currently a major supplier for trapped-ion quantum computers, with its ability to manufacture lasers across diverse wavelengths allows Vexlum to power solutions far beyond quantum labs. The technology is being developed to make satellite optical communications more reliable and enable next-generation optical atomic clocks that aim to redefine the precision of timekeeping.
As Vexlum scales from research-oriented production to industrial volumes it furthers its strategy of avoiding direct competition with high-volume silicon chip manufacturers, the company occupies a niche requiring deep technical expertise and delivering high margins — a sustainable position for a Nordic manufacturer.
