# Vivek Raghunathan

> Vivek Raghunathan is the Co-founder and CEO of Xscape Photonics, a silicon photonics startup building multi-color laser technology to solve the bandwidth bottlenecks choking AI data centers. With a PhD from MIT and over 18 years of experience at Intel, Rockley Photonics, and Broadcom, he co-founded Xscape in 2022 alongside four Columbia University photonics researchers. The company has raised ~$95 million in total funding, backed by NVIDIA, Cisco, Addition, and IAG Capital Partners, and launched FalconX, the industry's first fully redundant eight-wavelength external laser module in pluggable form factor.

- **Role:** Co-founder & CEO at Xscape Photonics Inc
- **Organizations:** Xscape Photonics Inc, Broadcom, Rockley Photonics, Intel
- **Nationality:** Indian-American
- **Education:** B.Tech in Materials Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), PhD in Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- **Known for:** Co-founded Xscape Photonics, which raised ~$95M from NVIDIA, Cisco, Addition, and IAG Capital Partners, Helped demonstrate the industry's first 25.6T Ethernet switch co-packaged with silicon photonics chiplets at Broadcom, Commercialized Intel's first silicon photonics-based transceivers

## Career timeline

- **~2005-2012** — Intel - Led next-generation GPU to HBM interconnect technology development and commercialized Intel's first silicon photonics-based transceivers
- **~2012-2016** — Rockley Photonics - Principal Engineer, led silicon photonics product integration for data-com products
- **~2016-2022** — Broadcom - Sr. Principal Engineer, Product Architect, and Program Leader for Integrated Silicon Photonics; demonstrated industry's first 25.6T Ethernet switch co-packaged with silicon photonics chiplets
- **2022** — Co-founded Xscape Photonics Inc. as CEO alongside Columbia University researchers Alexander Gaeta, Michal Lipson, Keren Bergman, and Yoshi Okawachi
- **2024-10** — Xscape Photonics closes $44M Series A led by IAG Capital Partners with investment from NVIDIA, Cisco, Altair, and others
- **2025-06** — Xscape Photonics reveals EagleX Laser Evaluation Kit, first public availability of ChromX platform
- **2025-08** — Xscape Photonics and Tower Semiconductor unveil industry's first optically pumped on-chip multi-wavelength laser platform
- **2026-03** — Xscape Photonics announces $37M Series A extension led by Addition, launches FalconX, industry's first 8-wavelength ELSFP laser module; total funding reaches ~$95M

## Achievements

- Co-founded Xscape Photonics, which raised ~$95M from NVIDIA, Cisco, Addition, and IAG Capital Partners
- Helped demonstrate the industry's first 25.6T Ethernet switch co-packaged with silicon photonics chiplets at Broadcom
- Commercialized Intel's first silicon photonics-based transceivers
- Launched FalconX, the world's first fully redundant 8-wavelength External Laser Small Form-factor Pluggable (ELSFP) device
- Built and deployed the ChromX programmable multi-color photonics platform for AI data center fabrics
- Co-developed (with Tower Semiconductor) the first monolithically integrated, multi-color laser source on a single chip
- 18+ years of pioneering work advancing silicon photonics from prototype to production at three major semiconductor companies

## Latest updates

- **2026-03** — Announced $37M Series A extension led by Addition; launched FalconX, the industry's first 8-wavelength ELSFP laser module, bringing total funding to ~$95M
- **2026-03** — Featured in Computer Weekly deep-dive on FalconX and the eight-wavelength laser architecture for AI data centers
- **2025-10** — Delivered keynote at Optica PECC Industry Summit (Photonic-Enabled Cloud Computing) in Sunnyvale
- **2025-08** — Co-announced industry's first monolithically integrated multi-color on-chip laser with Tower Semiconductor using PH18 platform
- **2025-06** — Revealed EagleX Laser Evaluation Kit as first customer-accessible ChromX platform offering

## Links

- Website: https://xscapephotonics.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivek-raghunathan-8228913a

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/vivek-raghunathan
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Last updated: 2026-05-09