Singular Photonics Raises $2.15M Seed for SPAD Image Sensors

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Singular Photonics has secured $2.15 million, or £1.6 million, in an oversubscribed Seed round. ACF Investors led it, with Wren Capital, Cambridge Angels, Scottish Enterprise, Quantum Exponential and Old College Capital participating.

The company builds image sensors around single photon avalanche diodes. Where a conventional sensor measures how much light arrives, a SPAD detects and times individual photons, which opens up applications in AI and machine vision that intensity measurement cannot serve. Singular pairs that with computing on the chip itself.

The business was spun out of the School of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh in 2025. Professor Robert Henderson, Dr. Aravind Venugopalan, Dr. Neil Finlayson and chief executive Shahida Imani co-founded it, and it operates from Edinburgh.

Sales have already doubled the full year 2025 figure during 2026 so far, helped by customer engagements across several sectors including a collaboration with the instrumentation company Renishaw.

The company has also added former Arm chief technology officer Dipesh Patel to its board. He spent 25 years at the semiconductor firm in various management roles before taking the CTO position. Being based in the United Kingdom also brought in Scottish Enterprise as a backer.

Money from the round will widen the product portfolio and speed up the next generation of sensors.

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