Eyeo raises €40M to reinvent the image sensor that hasn't changed in 50 years
What's the deal? Eyeo, an Eindhoven-based deep tech imaging startup, has raised €40M in a Series A round led by Innovation IndustriesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, bringing total funding to €55M. Existing investors imec.xpandDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Invest-NL Deep Tech FundDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, QBICDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, High-Tech Gründerfonds, and Brabant Development AgencyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → also participated.
The company was co-founded by Jeroen HoetDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → (CEO), Jan GenoeDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Alden CarracilloDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and Gerd Van den BrandenDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and is headquartered at High Tech Campus Eindhoven with a sensor design centre in Antwerp.
Eyeo has developed a fundamentally different approach to image sensing called Nanophotonic Color Splitting (NCOS). Every image sensor currently on the market — across smartphones, cars, industrial machines, and XR devices — uses colour filters that work by blocking unwanted light, discarding around 70% of available photons in the process.
Eyeo's technology instead splits incoming light by colour and guides each photon directly to the right pixel, tripling light sensitivity and enabling much smaller pixels without sacrificing image quality. The technology is compatible with existing chip manufacturing processes, backed by 26 patents, and has been validated at a commercial foundry. Multiple tier-one customers are already engaged.
Why now? The imaging sensor market generates around $30B annually and touches virtually every device with a camera — but its core technology has not changed fundamentally in 50 years. The pressure to improve camera performance in increasingly compact form factors — particularly for XR headsets, autonomous vehicles, and smartphone cameras — has pushed the limits of what colour filter technology can deliver. Eyeo's approach removes the constraint at the source rather than working around it.
The Series A capital will fund three priorities: building an in-house IC design team at the Antwerp sensor design centre, developing next-generation sensors in 3D-stacked chip technology, and expanding commercial partnerships with OEM customers across smart city, industrial, XR, and mobile markets.
What could go wrong? Eyeo is a deep tech company commercialising seven years of research from imecDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → — a strong technical foundation, but the gap between laboratory validation and volume production is where many semiconductor startups have stumbled.
Convincing major OEM customers to redesign their imaging stacks around a new sensor technology is a slow and relationship-intensive process. The $30B imaging market is also dominated by large, well-resourced incumbents including SonyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and SamsungDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
The signal: Eyeo is a compelling example of the kind of foundational deep tech that the European semiconductor ecosystem is capable of producing — a genuine platform technology, not an incremental improvement, built on years of publicly funded research at imec and now being commercialised through a focused startup.
Its timing is also well-chosen: the demand for better imaging in smaller form factors has never been higher, and its technology addresses a constraint that incumbents have no easy answer to.
Sources:
Eyeo
The Next Web
IO Plus
PhotonDelta
Photonics
High Tech Campus Eindhoven, LinkedIn
Image credit:
Eyeo
J.V.
