Phaseform, a spin-off from the University of Freiburg, has announced the successful completion of a €1.1 million seed round by private investors and MBG Baden-Württemberg. The photonics startup will use the funding to scale up manufacturing of its “Deformable Phase Plate'' based product line.
Phaseform pioneers transparent adaptive optics (AO) components that can adjust their surface with extreme precision to counteract imperfections inherent in many optical systems. "Although AO is the de-facto standard in astronomy, its commercial success in other fields such life science microscopy, ophthalmology and optical inspection has been limited due to a lack of affordable and easy-to-implement solutions," says Dr. Stefan Weber, CEO of Phaseform. Dr. Pouya Rajaeipour (CTO) adds, "We have solved this problem with our technology." Maximilian Dreher, investment manager at MBG, confirms, "Phaseform is a highly innovative startup with cutting-edge technology to enhance the performance of optical systems."
Phaseform’s goal is to apply its scalable technology to a wide range of imaging and beamforming applications, bringing decades of cutting-edge AO research to fruition.
Closing the financing round was supported by BadenCampus (www.badencampus.de), an accelerator and innovation platform serving the startup ecosystem in the South German Upper Rhine area.
Contact:
Phaseform: Dr. Stefan M. Weber, +49 761 60079018, [email protected], www.phaseform.com
Phaseform GmbH, Georges-Köhler-Allee 102, D-79110 Freiburg i.B., Germany
MBG: Dunja Giesler, +49 711 1645 703, [email protected], www.mbg.de
MBG Mittelständische Beteiligungsgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg GmbH, Werastraße 13-15, D-70182 Stuttgart, Germany
About Phaseform: Phaseform was spun-off in 2020 from the Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK) of the University of Freiburg by a team of engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs. Phaseform has received previous funding from ‘EXIST transfer or research’ and ‘Start-up BW Pro-Tect’'.
About MBG:
MBG invests in small and medium-sized enterprises based in Baden-Württemberg across all sectors with seed investments, start-up- and growth financing for young and established companies. MBG is a publicly and privately funded investment company, working closely with Bürgschaftsbank Baden-Württemberg GmbH and is supported by the state of Baden-Württemberg and the German federal government.