Scantinel Photonics
Component
FMCW LiDAR on chip at 1550 nm: over 300 m range, simultaneous range and velocity, built for mass production.
Scantinel Photonics builds FMCW (coherent) LiDAR on chip: a 1550 nm system that puts lasers, detectors and much of the optics onto a silicon photonics wafer, so the sensor needs no error-prone manual assembly or calibration. Coherent ranging counts every returned photon, which the company says delivers detection beyond 300 metres, per-pixel simultaneous range and velocity, immunity to sunlight and to interference from other LiDARs, high pixel rates through efficient multiplexing, and a compact, low-cost-at-volume package built on mature CMOS-compatible processes. Incubated inside Carl Zeiss AG from 2016 and spun out in 2019 in Ulm, Germany, Scantinel targets automotive autonomy and robotics, and is backed by ZEISS Ventures, Scania Growth Capital and PhotonDelta.
Research mapping
Physical AI / Perception & Sensing (L7) / Component
Evidence boundary
Original analysis and independent corroboration remain under development. Commercial scale and durable technical advantage remain under review.
What makes it defensible
Coherent detection on a standard CMOS photonics platform: FMCW LiDAR that measures velocity per pixel and survives sunlight and interference, manufacturable at wafer scale instead of hand-assembled optical benches.
Position in the stack: Perception layer (L7). Scantinel sells the sensor into automotive and robotics programmes, where the qualification bar is years of reliability data and a cost curve that only wafer-scale photonics can hit. The moat is the chip-level integration of coherent ranging (Zeiss-incubated optics plus CMOS photonics), which makes the sensor both cheaper and more robust than assembled FMCW benches — and hard to replicate without the same fab relationships.
Who buys it
Founding team
Michael Richter — CEO — Leads Scantinel Photonics; named as CEO in company releases from the 2019 spin-out through the 2024 chip announcement.
Vladimir Davydenko — Chief Scientist & Co-founder — Named as chief scientist and co-founder in the company's July 2024 chip release.
SourceFinancing detail
- Last round
- Series A
Investors: PhotonDelta, Scania Growth Capital, ZEISS Ventures
Mapped funds and investors
Direct relationships supported by published evidence.
Reported holdings as-of
No sourced relationships mapped yet.
Disclosed investment history
No sourced relationships mapped yet.
Showing up to four relationships in each group. ETF weights describe the fund’s portfolio, not ownership of this company. Private investment history does not establish current ownership.