ActLight has raised CHF 3.5 million in a Series C round from investiere, Swisscom and the Quan technology fund. investiere investors contributed close to CHF 1 million.

ActLight develops and licenses light sensor technology which can be used for applications such as proximity sensing and gesture controls in smartphones. ActLight’s sensors provide the same performance with up to 10-times less energy consumption, requiring significantly less space and at a better price compared to existing solutions. This enables cost savings and at the same time performance improvements for light sensing in portable electronics, such as smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, 3D cameras, as well as in related sensor-dependent industries like medtech and autonomous vehicles.

ActLight has developed a prototype smartwatch with heart rate monitoring. Based on this work, the company has garnered strong interest from top industry players in commercializing the technology. The two other applications ActLight is targeting include a LIDAR sensor and a 3D TOF camera. “Actlight’s breakthrough technology enables smaller and cheaper light sensors that consume significantly less power and are compatible with standard production processes. This technology has massive commercial potential” says Chris Gay-Crosier, investiere’s investment manager responsible for the case.

With the funding from this round, ActLight will continue to work on its prototype of a 3D TOF camera to show the effectiveness of its sensor in this application.