Dutch company Morphotonics has raised €40 million to expand its nanoimprint lithography (NIL) technology beyond consumer displays into the data center sector. Founded in the Netherlands, the startup has spent 12 years developing NIL, a process that creates detailed patterns on surfaces using stamps, primarily for manufacturing AR glasses and other optical devices.
The funding round was led by 3M Ventures, Innovation Industries, BOM, and Invest-NL. Participation also came from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, Dutch family office Ernij Next, and the European Investment Bank (EIB). Morphotonics has historically benefited from the Netherlands’ advanced semiconductor ecosystem, leveraging suppliers often associated with ASML, the global leader in lithography equipment.
CEO Hugo Da Silva, who joined the company in September 2024, stated that the capital will support scaling production and entering new markets. The investment is part of a broader fundraising initiative that began in 2024, allowing Morphotonics to more than double its workforce to 60 employees, up from approximately 30. The company anticipates headcount stabilizing between 70 and 75 as it continues hiring.
Morphotonics’ NIL process involves creating a stamp that is pressed onto photosensitive materials to produce various displays, including waveguides used in smart glasses like the Meta Ray-Ban Display, Even Reality, and Magic Leap products. Waveguides are thin optical components that guide light to display images directly in front of the wearer’s eyes.
_demand for smart glasses is rising globally. In China, sales doubled in the first eight months of 2026, while IDC projects that shipments of displayed smart glasses will reach 12.2 million units annually by 2030. Manufacturers are increasingly seeking scalable production solutions like those offered by Morphotonics to meet this demand._
Looking ahead, the company is developing its next generation of machines, expected to ship early next year. These systems will be capable of producing over 6 million waveguides annually. Beyond displays, Morphotonics is targeting the data center industry with co-packaged optics technology, which uses photonic integrated circuits to transfer data via light rather than electricity. Although no machines have been shipped in this segment yet, customer validation of the technology is complete.
Currently, roughly 90% of Morphotonics’ revenue comes from hardware sales, with 10 to 15 systems deployed worldwide. The company plans to increase this to 50 deployments within the next two to three years, a shift expected to boost service and licensing revenue. Da Silva emphasized the importance of local presence, noting that the company’s manufacturing footprint is heavily concentrated in Asia, with teams in China, Taiwan, South Korea, and the United States.
I thought NIL was strictly for consumer AR displays. Co-packaged optics is a totally different beast entirely.
Wow, doubling the workforce to sixty just to pivot into data centers? That seems like aggressive expansion for a twelve-year-old startup.
Nanoimprint lithography scaling is impressive, but entering data centers feels like a risky pivot from established photonic players.