Announcing Our Investment in Mesh Optical
$50M in funding led by Thrive Capital to accelerate our photonic future
Today we’re excited to share our investment in Mesh Optical. Mesh is developing new optical manufacturing techniques that make the next generation of optical systems possible. We’ve been supporters of Mesh’s vision since day one, and earlier this morning Mesh announced $50M in funding, led by Thrive Capital, with participation from Banner VC.
Mesh’s initial product, the Alpha C1, is an optical transceiver that linearly translates electrical signals to light at 1.6 Terabits per second and delivers better power efficiency, lower latency, and higher reliability for AI workloads and power-constrained data centers and, critically, is designed and manufactured in Los Angeles, CA (cCheck out the production video here).
“Photonics today often focuses on advanced design and treats high-volume production as a downstream exercise. That model slows the feedback loop between device physics, packaging, yield, and automation. At Mesh, we believe the future of photonics depends on integrating design and manufacturing under the same roof.”
Across our portfolio we’re heavily invested in the idea that the biggest winners in Hard Tech will be those that tighten the loop between design and manufacturing of complex systems. Doing so accelerates development and improves product design, and is the best way to rapidly meet the urgent demand for the building blocks of compute, communication, and autonomy that are the foundations of our economic future.
Above all, we invest in people, and Travis, Cameron, and Serena are incredibly special humans. Prior to co-founding Mesh, the team spent years at SpaceX building critical hardware and software control systems for inter-satellite links (ISLs), a key enabler of SpaceX’s Starlink constellation and their future ambitions for data centers in space. This work positioned them extremely well to start Mesh as it is one of the few domains demanding optical alignment and thermal stability comparable to optical interconnects like their Alpha C1.
Since raising their seed, they’ve quickly scaled the team to 15 people (a highly impressive SHIP (Speed of Hiring Impressive People) rate…) and began producing prototype units off their initial production line. Their technical leadership and vision has been amazing, and we’re excited to partner with them.
Congratulations to the Mesh team, we can’t wait to see what’s ahead!
