EMode Photonix Raises $1M Pre-Seed Round Led by Ground State Ventures for Photonic Circuit Simulation Stack

Boulder, Colorado-based quantum integrated photonics software startup EMode Photonix has announced the closure of a $1 million pre-seed funding round led by Ground State Ventures, with participation from Harlow Capital Management. Co-founded in 2021 by CEO Eric Stanton (former NIST postdoc and UC Santa Barbara researcher) and Maiya A. S., EMode Photonix has developed a specialized multi-physics simulation platform tailored for non-linear integrated photonic circuits (PICs). Built on proprietary computational modeling techniques, newly derived frequency conversion equations, and a novel 3D method for interfacial scattering loss, the company’s simulation stack achieves up to a 1,000x speedup over traditional non-linear photonics modeling workflows while incorporating coupled thermal, radio-frequency (RF), and non-linear optical dynamics. [ EMode Photonix Pre-Seed Funding & Platform Profile ]Financial / Corporate MetricInvestment & Investor DetailsCore Technology & Market Deliverables• Funding Amount & Stage• $1.0 Million Pre-Seed Round• Preceded by 5 years of non-dilutive federal SBIR grants (NIST, NSF, NASA) and commercial software revenue.• Lead & Participating Investors• Lead: Ground State Ventures• Participant: Harlow Capital Management• Supported by industry veterans including Chad Rigetti, Kris Kaczmarek, Colby Harlow, Nic Weiroster, Martin SFP Bryant, and Ton van ‘t Noordende.• Core Software Capabilities• Multi-physics non-linear photonic CAD platform• 1,000x faster non-linear circuit modeling; multi-color frequency conversion, 3D interfacial scattering loss, RF, and thermal co-simulation.• Commercial Roadmap• Single-day PIC design suite• Scaling from academic R&D labs to an enterprise CAD stack for quantum photonic hardware development. The pre-seed investment marks the first institutional capital taken on by the startup following years of organic growth supported by commercial software revenue and competitive federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards from NASA, NSF, and NIST. EMode’s platform enables photonics engineers to model complex classical and quantum light transformations—such as non-linear frequency conversion, parametric and dissipative effects, and squeezed-light generation—within photonic chips using fabrication-realistic geometries and materials. The capital will be used to expand the company’s engineering team in Boulder and accelerate the rollout of its upcoming enterprise software offering, which aims to automate functional photonic integrated circuit design within a single day for quantum computing, optical sensing, and telecommunications markets. Review Ton van ‘t Noordende’s announcement on LinkedIn here, read Eric Stanton’s funding update on LinkedIn here, examine Colby Harlow’s investment perspective on LinkedIn here, and explore open roles on the EMode Photonix Careers Portal here. In GQI Portal The players behind the news The team that writes QCR tracks every company, deal and technology in the GQI Factory, GQI's verified database of the quantum industry. Next up: every story linked to its players, coming to QCR's paid plans. Players →Companies and institutions across the quantum industry, by segment. Scorecards →How the players compare on hardware, software, funding and more. Newsletter QCR Alerts in your inbox The latest reporting and analysis from Quantum Computing Report. Free, unsubscribe any time. Sign up for QCR Alerts Leave a commentCancel replyAll fields are required. Your email address will not be published.CommentName Email Type in the text displayed above Δ