Dutch deep-tech company eyeo has raised €40 million in Series A funding as it looks to bring its nanophotonic colour-splitting sensor technology to market, targeting applications across smartphones, XR, industrial imaging and smart city infrastructure. The round was led by Innovation Industries, with participation from existing investors imec.xpand, Invest-NL Deep Tech Fund, QBIC, High-Tech Gründerfonds and Brabant Development Agency. The funding brings eyeo’s total capital raised to €55 million.
The company claims its Nanophotonic Color Splitting (NCOS®) platform addresses a long-standing limitation in image sensor technology by replacing conventional colour filters that block a significant proportion of incoming light. According to eyeo, traditional sensors discard around 70% of available light during the filtering process.
Instead, eyeo’s approach separates incoming light into colour channels and directs photons to the appropriate pixel, enabling what the company says is a threefold increase in light sensitivity while also improving colour accuracy and image resolution. The technology is designed to work with existing CMOS sensor platforms and supports sub-micron pixel architectures for compact, high-performance imaging systems. eyeo believes this could remove long-standing trade-offs between sensor size and image quality in applications ranging from consumer electronics to autonomous systems.
Scaling from research to production
The Series A investment will be used to expand eyeo’s engineering and commercial operations as it transitions from research and development into scaled deployment. The company said the funding will support the build-out of its IC and systems architecture team at its Antwerp design centre, alongside development of next-generation 3D-stacked CMOS image sensors and broader OEM partnerships. eyeo’s technology has been developed over seven years at imec and has already undergone process integration at a commercial foundry, according to the company.
Jeroen Hoet, co-founder and CEO of eyeo, said the company is now positioned to scale commercial deployment.
“Every modern device that sees the world, from smartphones to autonomous systems, is held back by the same 50-year-old constraint. eyeo removes it at the source,” said Hoet. “Our technology is proven, patented and validated at a commercial foundry, with tier one customers already engaged. This €40 million round gives us what we need to scale.”
Nard Sinteni, Partner at Innovation Industries, described the technology as a foundational semiconductor breakthrough with broad implications for the wider tech ecosystem.
“eyeo is delivering the kind of foundational breakthrough that redefines an entire category,” said Sinteni. “This is a powerful example of deep-tech innovation driving real structural progress in semiconductors.”
Headquartered at High Tech Campus Eindhoven, eyeo also operates a sensor design centre in Antwerp. The company is targeting opportunities across a global imaging market it estimates to be worth $30 billion.
What it means for the vision industry
For the wider machine vision and imaging sector, eyeo’s approach could mark one of the more significant sensor architecture shifts in decades. As manufacturers continue pushing for higher resolution, smaller form factors and better low-light performance, conventional colour filter technology has increasingly become a bottleneck. If eyeo can successfully commercialise its NCOS® platform at scale, it could enable a new generation of compact vision systems capable of delivering significantly improved image quality without requiring larger sensors or more complex optics.
The implications extend well beyond smartphones and consumer imaging. In industrial vision, higher light sensitivity can translate into faster inspection speeds, lower power consumption and improved reliability in challenging environments. Smart city infrastructure and autonomous systems could also benefit from improved low-light and high-dynamic-range imaging, particularly in safety-critical applications where image clarity directly impacts system performance. For XR and wearable devices, where size, weight and thermal constraints remain major engineering challenges, more efficient sensors could help unlock slimmer and more power-efficient designs.
The funding round also reflects continued investor confidence in deep-tech semiconductor innovation across Europe. With imaging increasingly central to AI-driven systems, robotics and automation, advances at the sensor level are becoming strategically important across the broader vision ecosystem. If eyeo’s technology delivers on its promises in commercial deployments, it could place Europe at the forefront of next-generation image sensing development.
