Our Global History

EFFECT Photonics’ history is rich with innovation, sharing and collaboration.

Ready, Set, Produce!

We develop our platform technology. It is ready. The heart of our product is the optical System-on-chip. The delivery of our first optical chip to clients is now a reality. We secure funding from PhotonDelta to support our growing 5G and data centre business. We will use this investment to further accelerate product development and business scale-up. Over the last 25 years, they have been cooperating in the research, design, development and manufacturing of integrated photonics technologies and components in Europe. We are at 120 employees and counting and growing about 50% year on year. We expand our workspace in Eindhoven to 1,800 m2. The company’s sales force is in place, and we are ready to further push our goal to go global. “We grew from just the two of us to a hundred and twenty people, so it’s been quite a journey.” Tim Koene, CTO and and co-founder EFFECT Photonics

Ride The Wave.

With high growth ambition, we raise a VC Series B investment round, entering into an agreement with Skylane Optics to supply lineside optical DWDM tunable SFP+ optical transceivers to Telecom operators across Europe, North and South America.

The Growth.

With high growth ambition, we raise a VC Series B investment round, entering into an agreement with Skylane Optics to supply lineside optical DWDM tunable SFP+ optical transceivers to Telecom operators across Europe, North and South America.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Our company has some setbacks in terms of product development. We realise that what we want to achieve is more difficult than expected. This includes the partners that we are working with, our supply chain, the people we contracted to produce the chips that we are designing, but also the electronics components that we need to design in. We require more time and money because the telecom market is constantly changing. Our product strategy must change to reflect market conditions, fluctuations, and dynamics. We begin to focus on the expansion of mobile data 4G and 5G networks.

The expansion.

With secured funds thanks to b-to-v Partners AG, we closed our series A funding in 2015 placing EFFECT Photonics even closer to bringing its optical System-on-Chip technology to market and to meet the exploding demand for bandwidth in cell towers and between datacentres. Company’s attention turned to growth and expansion scouting locations for specialised telecommunications product development and manufacturing. EFFECT Photonics settled on Brixham, UK. Brixham is conveniently situated to provide access to the resources used by the well-established hi-tech cluster of companies and expertise locally based there. EFFECT Photonics developed a product line and placed its first order on equipment needed to carry out measurements. We leave behind our cramped quarters and move into a new 300 m2 office space. We double our staff from 15 to 30.

Eindhoven Photonics Dream Becomes Reality.

EFFECT Photonics is a spin-out from the prestigious Technical University of Eindhoven (TU/e), The Netherlands, which has been at the forefront of European photonic integration research. The founders, Boudewijn Docter and Tim Koene began in a small office on the TU/e campus in 2011. “When with Tim Koene we started EFFECT Photonics, the photonics technology was very much still in its research phase. The academics were working on new building blocks all the time, adding novel functions and features, and publishing nice results, but not really taking the time to solidify the process and make a stronger, more reproducible baseline. Working on a new project is of course much more exciting, so we started working on making a real product”. Boudewijn Docter, President and co-founder EFFECT Photonics. Fairly shortly after that, James Regan joined as VP of Sales & Marketing and Dennis Maas as CFO. It was time to take EFFECT Photonics to the next level and their objective was to create momentum in the market and attract the necessary funding to finance the further design and development of the technology. In 2014, EFFECT Photonics moved from our campus location to our first “home” in Eindhoven’s Strijp-S area.