NLM Photonics

NLM Photonics commercializes Selerion, a family of crosslinkable thermoset organic electro-optic (OEO) polymers integrated into silicon-organic-hybrid (SOH) Mach-Zehnder modulators. The flagship grade Selerion-HTX (literature: HLD) ships at r33 150–450 pm/V; the next-gen Selerion-BHX (announced Jun 2025) reaches ~1000 pm/V bulk and demonstrates VπL = 0.038 V·mm in a Polariton plasmonic device. Both originate in the University of Washington labs of Profs. Larry Dalton and Bruce Robinson and are exclusively licensed to NLM via UW CoMotion.

As of 2026-04-29: NLM is sampling 1.6T DR8 and 3.2T SOH PICs to "select customers" (no named hyperscaler or transceiver-OEM customer publicly disclosed). Foundry validation runs are complete on Tower Semiconductor PH18M (Mar 2026) and GlobalFoundries (AMF process) (Mar 2026); a third track at AIM Photonics 300 mm is funded by an AFWERX STTR Phase II contract ($1.8M, awarded Jul 2024). Third-party validation by Keysight + VLC Photonics (Sep 2025) confirms 224 Gbps PAM4/lane and 110 GHz EO bandwidth. The NLM × Polariton (now Marvell) co-development relationship makes NLM a probable polymer supplier into Marvell's post-acquisition POH stack — a cross-thesis link to LWLG worth tracking.

Funding: ~$10.5M cumulative across pre-seed → Series A (Series A closed Dec 2024 / announced Jan 2025; ~$8M led by Emerald Technology Ventures, with Idemitsu, Oregon Venture Fund, StoryHouse Ventures, Pack Ventures, Hamamatsu, TOK as participants). Headcount ~15–20 estimated (LinkedIn 11–50 band; +60% growth in 2025 per company). Thin runway relative to the foundry-MPW + customer-sampling cadence — expect a Series B / strategic round in 2026.