Eyeo Secures €40 Million to Develop Cameras That Capture Three Times More Light

2026-05-11 semicon

Amsterdam, Monday 11 May 2026
Dutch startup Eyeo has raised €40 million to commercialise revolutionary image sensors. By eliminating traditional filters, the technology captures three times more light, fundamentally transforming global camera performance.

Shattering a 50-Year Technological Bottleneck

For half a century, nearly all modern devices that perceive the physical world have been constrained by the same fundamental limitation: traditional absorptive colour filters block up to 70% of incoming light [4][5][7]. To solve this, Eyeo has developed a proprietary Nanophotonic Color Splitting (NCOS®) platform, backed by 26 patents [4][7][8]. Rather than filtering and subsequently losing photons, this nanoscale optical structure physically separates incoming light into its component wavelengths and directs each colour to the corresponding pixel [2][8]. This breakthrough enables sensors to capture up to three times more light without increasing their physical footprint, resulting in sharper images, superior low-light performance, and highly accurate colour reproduction [1][3][5][7].

Strengthening the European Semiconductor Value Chain

Eyeo’s rapid ascent underscores the compounding strength of the Dutch and wider European semiconductor ecosystem [5]. Headquartered at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, with a dedicated integrated circuit (IC) and system architecture design centre in Antwerp, the company is deeply embedded in the region’s technological infrastructure [2][7][8]. As a spin-out from the Belgian research institute imec, Eyeo builds upon more than seven years of rigorous research, development, and validation [1][4][5][7]. The firm’s advancements in chip design and nanofotonics naturally complement the broader regional value chain, which includes lithography and deposition equipment leaders such as ASML and ASM, as well as integrated photonics networks like PhotonDelta [GPT].

Scaling Up for a Multi-Billion Euro Market

With the fresh capital, Eyeo is aggressively expanding its engineering capabilities to capture a share of the $30 billion global imaging market [4][7]. The firm is actively recruiting for its Antwerp facility to advance the development of next-generation colour-splitting image sensors based on 3D-stacked CMOS technology [2][4][7]. This architecture allows for sub-0.5-micron pixels, unlocking unprecedented resolution capabilities in highly compact sensor designs without sacrificing image quality [7][8]. The funding will also accelerate the establishment of commercial partnerships with tier-one original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and commercial foundries, where the technology has already been integrated and validated [4][7][8].

Sources & Ecosystem Partners

Venture capital Image sensors