Edinburgh spinout Singular Photonics has raised $2.15 million in an oversubscribed funding round led by ACF Investors, with Wren Capital, Cambridge Angels, Scottish Enterprise, Quantum Exponential and Old College Capital also taking part. The company builds on-chip image sensors and will use the money for a new sensor tape-out and to grow its team.
What the company does
Singular Photonics makes image sensors that count individual photons of light rather than measuring and averaging the amount of light hitting each pixel, which is how most conventional cameras work. Its chips are built on single-photon avalanche diode technology, known as SPAD, the same underlying approach used in the facial recognition sensors found in many smartphones.
Where most SPAD sensors only register that a photon has arrived and pass the raw data elsewhere for processing, Singular carries out computation directly on the chip itself, in the way a microprocessor works inside a computer. The company says this on-chip processing is aimed at machine vision, industrial automation and physical AI applications, and points to its architecture, rather than sensor size, as its main point of difference from larger rivals such as Sony, STMicroelectronics and AMS OSRAM.
The round
Singular Photonics has raised $2.15 million in an oversubscribed funding round led by ACF Investors, according to Tech Funding News. Other participants named include Wren Capital, Cambridge Angels, Scottish Enterprise, Quantum Exponential and Old College Capital, the venture fund of the University of Edinburgh. The round follows a £1 million investment in March 2025 from the Scottish Venture Fund, Cambridge Angels and Old College Capital, taking the company’s total funding to just over $3 million.
The company says the new money will fund a tape-out of a next-generation sensor shaped by two and a half years of customer feedback, along with a fourth product launch. Its team, currently around 10 people, is expected to more than double in size. Dipesh Patel, formerly chief technology officer at Arm, has joined the board.
Shahida Imani, Singular Photonics’ co-founder and chief executive, told Tech Funding News: “We’ve already doubled our 2025 sales, we’re approaching break-even, and our customers are telling us exactly what they want from future product.”
Sam Stratton, founder of Commotion Labs. 10 September 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What does Singular Photonics do?
Singular Photonics is an Edinburgh company that makes SPAD image sensors capable of counting individual photons and processing that data directly on the chip, for use in machine vision, industrial automation and physical AI.
Who invested in Singular Photonics?
The $2.15 million round was led by ACF Investors, with Wren Capital, Cambridge Angels, Scottish Enterprise, Quantum Exponential and Old College Capital also taking part, according to Tech Funding News.
What will Singular Photonics use the funding for?
The company plans to use the money for a tape-out of a next-generation sensor, the launch of a fourth product, and to more than double the size of its roughly 10-person team.
