Aurelex Photonics builds LUMEN-8, a 1.6 Tbps co-packaged optical engine that sits inside the switch or accelerator package rather than at the faceplate. It moves data at 4.1 picojoules per bit against 9 to 12 for comparable pluggable optics — roughly two and a half times less energy at the shortest reach, where copper is least efficient. Founded in Brisbane in March 2023 by Dr Priya Raghavan, Dr Callum Hartley and Wei-Lin Tan, the company has completed three tape-outs, shipped engineering samples to two data centre operators, and earned $1.42M of FY26 revenue from engineering contracts.
AI racks have moved from 15 kW to well above 100 kW, and operators now design to a power envelope. Optical interconnect already accounts for 14 to 19 per cent of rack power in the 2027 and 2028 rack designs our customers are modelling. Pluggable optics sit at the faceplate, metres from the die, and burn 9 to 12 picojoules for every bit they move. Every watt spent moving data is a watt not spent on computation, and a watt of heat that has to be removed. Operators are not asking for faster optics. They are asking for the same bandwidth at materially less power, inside the package.
LUMEN-8 puts the optical conversion in the same package as the host die, so the electrical distance from the host serialiser to the modulator is a few millimetres of substrate instead of tens of centimetres of board and cable. Three patent families cover the thermal tuning of ring resonator arrays, the package thermal interface, and wafer-scale test and calibration. The third tape-out is complete, the silicon was characterised in May 2026, and engineering samples are with two data centre operators under letters of intent.
Co-packaged optics is a new tier inside a market that already exists: the spend happening today on pluggable optics moves into the package as racks become power constrained. Roughly forty organisations worldwide are designing 2028 racks under a binding power budget and will engage a company of our size. We are in conversation with nine of them. We would rather show nine real conversations than a large top-down number.
45% LUMEN-16 development ($3.6M) — design, two tape-outs, bring-up and characterisation of the 3.2 Tbps engine. 25% test and reliability qualification ($2.0M) — the full qualification set both LOI customers have made a gate, plus a second optical test capability. 20% commercial and customer engineering ($1.6M). 10% working capital ($0.8M). The round funds roughly twenty-four months at the planned burn.
Series A of $8,000,000 as a priced equity round at a $32,000,000 pre-money valuation, seeking one lead investor for a substantial majority. Existing seed SAFEs of $2,400,000 convert at their $12,000,000 cap in this round. Funds take LUMEN-16 through two tape-outs and complete the reliability qualification both LOI customers have named as a gate. Target close 31 January 2027.
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