eyeo, a Dutch nanophotonics company, announced today it has raised €40 million in Series A funding, bringing total investment to €55 million. The round was led by Innovation Industries, with participation from existing investors imec.xpand, Invest-NL Deep Tech Fund, QBIC fund, High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), and Brabant Development Agency (BOM). The company aims to bring its color-splitting sensor technology to market, which promises to capture three times more light than current image sensors.
The core innovation addresses a long-standing issue in digital imaging: conventional color filters block about 70% of incoming light, wasting photons before they reach the sensor. eyeo’s nanophotonic technology guides photons directly to individual pixels, eliminating this loss. According to the company, this enables full light sensitivity and native color fidelity in any condition, even low light. The technology is compatible with any CMOS sensor platform and supports sub-0.5-micron pixels, allowing for ultra-compact, high-performance imaging.
“For the first time, image sensors can capture all incoming light, overcoming the 70% light loss imposed by decades-old color filter technology,” the company stated in its announcement. The potential impact spans multiple industries, including smartphones, extended reality (XR) devices, smart cities, and automotive imaging—a market valued at $30 billion. For smartphone users, this could mean dramatically better low-light photos without larger sensors or lenses. In XR, improved light sensitivity could enhance augmented reality experiences by providing clearer images in varied lighting.
The funding will accelerate eyeo’s transition from seven years of research into production-ready sensors. The company is headquartered at High Tech Campus Eindhoven in the Netherlands, with a sensor design center in Antwerp, Belgium. The round’s lead investor, Innovation Industries, focuses on deep tech, while existing backers include imec.xpand, a venture fund linked to the nanoelectronics research center imec, and the Invest-NL Deep Tech Fund.
eyeo’s technology could disrupt the imaging sensor supply chain by offering a drop-in replacement for traditional color filters. As cameras become integral to autonomous systems, security, and consumer electronics, the ability to triple light sensitivity without increasing sensor size could provide a competitive edge. For consumers, the most immediate benefit may be in next-generation smartphones and XR headsets, where image quality in low light is a key differentiator.
The company’s press release notes that its technology “enables sub-0.5-micron pixels for ultra-compact, high-performance imaging where image quality is critical.” This suggests applications in medical imaging and industrial inspection as well. With the imaging market continuing to grow, eyeo’s funding signals investor confidence in nanophotonic solutions to overcome physical limitations of conventional filters.
More details can be found in the full announcement.
