Xscape the Expected: Why We Started Xscape Photonics
By Vivek Raghunathan, Keren Bergman, Alexander Gaeta, Michal Lipson and Yoshi Okawachi
Co-Founders of Xscape Photonics
Every startup is the manifestation of an idea, a belief in an innovation beyond the ordinary, beyond the
limits of what is towards the realization of what can be.
Xscape Photonics is the product of not just one idea, but five separately formed ideas about what the
future of digital infrastructure could accomplish. When Xscape Photonics’ five co-founders came
together to begin the company in 2022, we seized on the collective throughline of our individual beliefs:
that a culture of global collaboration could unlock new technological horizons, that good technology is
built on sound research, and that we could develop technology capable of outclassing the competition,
startup and industry institution alike.
In essence: we could build something new, something impactful and something commercially viable, if
we built it together.
Vivek Raghunathan, Co-Founder and CEO: Building from the Ground Up
Co-founding Xscape was deeply personal for me. After years as an engineer in the semiconductor
industry, I wanted more than the satisfaction of building shipping a product along someone else's
roadmap. I wanted to build from scratch.
Large organizations move fast in some ways and slowly in others; culture, in particular, tends to be an
afterthought, shaped more by inertia than intention. I wanted the chance to build a team and a culture
deliberately from day one—a culture defined by discipline, intellectual rigor and a genuine belief that
the work matters. Xscape Photonics presented a unique opportunity, and when the comb research
coming out of Columbia's labs pointed unmistakably toward a major technological breakthrough, it
became clear to me the opportunity had arisen to build something new from the ground-up.
Alexander Gaeta, Co-Founder and President: Four Decades to a World-Changing Application
I have been performing research in nonlinear photonics for nearly 40 years yet, despite the many
impressive advances in this field over this period, only the green laser pointer has seen modest
commercial use.
Silicon photonics is a very specific technological subset; however, the computing capabilities it unlocks
will affect us all. Initial demonstrations with Keren and Michal on using the comb source with their
wavelength-division-multiplexed silicon photonics chip made me realize this was an application of
nonlinear photonics that could perhaps touch nearly every person in the world.
Yoshi Okawachi, Co-Founder and VP of R&D: From Fundamental Science to Real-World Impact
My path to co-founding Xscape runs through some of the most fundamental work in chip-scale
nonlinear optics. As a long-time contributor to the Columbia University research that underpins Xscape's
comb laser technology, I have understood for many years the gap between what is possible in the lab
and what has been realized in the field. Translating the precision and reliability of laboratory photonics
into a manufacturable, scalable commercial product is a challenge that motivates me. In my opinion, the
work of Xscape Photonics represents one of the most fundamental tenets of the research process:
putting transformative science to work where it is needed most.
Keren Bergman, Co-Founder and Board Advisor: Closing the Gap Between Chip and Network
I have spent my career studying the intersection of computing and photonics, focused on overcoming
the energy and bandwidth bottlenecks that limit modern high-performance systems. As data movement
now dominates the cost of computation, a profound gap persists between on-chip communication and
off-chip connectivity. At Xscape Photonics, we pioneered the comb laser and much of the foundational
silicon photonic technology enabling ultra-broadband DWDM links that deliver Petabit/s chip-escape
bandwidths at sub-picojoule per bit energies. Advancing these tightly integrated optical fabrics reflects
my passion for embedding photonics into computing systems to unlock transformative performance and
efficiency.
Michal Lipson, Co-Founder and Board Advisor: Seizing the Breakthrough Moment
My motivation to co-found Xscape Photonics came from witnessing silicon photonics evolve from a bold
idea into an architecture-defining technology. When our work demonstrated chip-scale frequency-comb
devices and architectures capable of unprecedented bandwidth, it became clear that the long-
anticipated breakthrough moment had arrived. Xscape Photonics was born to seize that moment and
deliver the first truly ultrahigh-bandwidth interconnect systems powered by silicon photonics.
One Team, One Inflection Point
Through five different backgrounds and with five different points of view, the Xscape Photonics
founding team reached the conclusion that the technology was ready, the need was urgent and the
window to act was open. The AI revolution has made data movement the central constraint on what is
computationally possible. Electrical interconnects cannot close that gap. Single-wavelength photonics
cannot close that gap. But multicolor silicon photonics can, and that is what Xscape Photonics exists to
deliver.
In the next post in this series, we explain exactly how we're doing it—and why the architecture we've
built is fundamentally different from anything that has come before.