Technology firm secures €300k capital

New technology to stream data through the internet’s fibre optic infrastructure at super high speeds is the foundation for Pilot Photonics Ltd, which yesterday secured €300,000 in seed capital.

A spin-out company built on the work of research teams in Cork’s Tyndall National Institute and Dublin City University secured the investment from Enterprise Ireland and the AIB Seed Capital Fund.

Enterprise Ireland hopes the investment will enable company directors Philip Perry and Frank Smyth to find a route to market for their optical networking technology, which has the potential to dramatically increase internet speeds.

Already Enterprise Ireland’s commercialisation funding allowed the technology inventors Philip Perry, Frank Smyth, Prince Anandarajah, Liam Barry from DCU, and Andrew Ellis from Tyndall, to bring the commercially-relevant aspects of their work to a spin-out ready state.

Mr Perry, Pilot Photonics’ chief executive, said anyone who had experienced conversation-disrupting delays on a video call over the internet would be glad to know that this technology would help eliminate the delays and frustrations caused by internet congestion.

“Using our technology you can get more data down existing fibre-optic cables rather than having to dig up roads to lay new fibre,” he said.

Pilot Photonics launched its first product at the world’s largest optical fibre communications conference and exhibition in March in Los Angeles, where it was well received.