From startup to established company
Newly founded Advisory Board professionalizes strategic orientation of Pixel Photonics
Münster, May 22, 2024 – The emerging deep-tech startup Pixel Photonics has announced the formation of a strategic advisory board to provide decision-making support to the company’s management. Since its foundation on 16 February, five members of the advisory board have been supporting the management of Pixel Photonics in its strategic orientation in the areas of financing, internationalisation and growth.
Dr.-Ing. Antonio Mesquida Küsters takes on the role of Chairman of the Advisory Board. As CEO of Tech-Diligence and High-Tech Business Angel, he has many years of experience in business development, general management and venture capital investments. Previously he was Senior Director of Product Management and Business Development at ASML B.V., Head of Strategic Marketing and Business Development at AIXTRON AG and Investment Partner at Infineon Ventures.
He is joined on the advisory board by Prof. Dr. Wolfram Pernice, Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Heidelberg and University of Münster and co-founder of Pixel Photonics, and Dr. Oliver Kahl, an experienced venture capital investor with a focus on fast-growing deep-tech start-ups. Dr Gernot Berger brings further deep-tech investment expertise and a strong background in physics with a focus on photonics. He is the Pixel Photonics Investment Manager at High-Tech Gründerfonds, which invested in the company. As one of the initiators of Quantonation – the first venture capital investor focused on quantum technologies – Jean-Gabriel Boinot-Tramoni has been involved in Pixel Photonics since its foundation and is now a member of the start-up’s advisory board.
The newly established Advisory Board will have decision-making, advisory and representative functions for Pixel Photonics and will meet at least once a quarter. At its first meeting, the board discussed the company’s long-term financing strategy, the evaluation of internationalisation opportunities and the planning of Pixel Photonics’ growth path. These issues are particularly relevant at this time, as Pixel Photonics is currently in a series-seed financing round. The extensive expertise of the Advisory Board members will accelerate decision-making processes within the company and drive the strategic positioning and development of Pixel Photonics.
“Pixel Photonics’ SNSPD photondetector technology is unique in terms of scalability and integration capability and will enable significant performance improvements for various types of quantum computers. I am very pleased to join the excellent board of this company, which brings the right mix of entrepreneurship and relevant industrial and academic experience,” says Dr.-Ing. Antonio Mesquida Küsters, Chairman of the Advisory Board of Pixel Photonics.
About Pixel Photonics
Pixel Photonics GmbH is a leading German nanophotonics start-up founded in 2020 as a spin-off of the University of Münster by Nicolai Walter, Dr. Wladick Hartmann, Dr. Fabian Beutel, Martin Wolff and Christoph Seidenstücker with the aim of commercialising highly scalable single-photon detectors. Applications of Pixel Photonics’ technology range from optical quantum computing, quantum key distribution and microscopy to metrology and sensing. The company consists of an international team of 36 employees pursuing a unique technological approach to single-photon detection that combines scalability with high detection efficiency at very high speed. This enables new applications and helps to increase the number of channels in quantum computing or the data rates in quantum cryptography without increasing the technical complexity. In addition to the EXIST funding, the company has received venture capital funding from Quantonation and HTGF, as well as several research grants from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). More information about Pixel Photonics can be found at www.pixelphotonics.com.
