After winning Gerard & Anton Awards, Dutch-based MantiSpectra bags €4M funding: Here’s why

Eindhoven-based MantiSpectra, a deep-tech company and spinoff of the Eindhoven University of Technology, announced on Monday, September 25, that it has raised €4M in a funding round led by Innovation Industries and PhotonVentures.

The Dutch startup says it will use the funds to scale its Semiconductor platform and support existing customers toward mass production.

The capital infusion will be used to accelerate the scale-up of fabrication, increase production capacity to support high-volume applications, and develop database libraries for turn-key solutions.

This investment will accelerate its expansion, enabling the company to solidify its position as a future key provider of chip-based spectroscopy.

The announcement comes a few days after MantiSpectra won the Gerard & Anton Awards, the annual election of the ten most promising startups in the Brainport Eindhoven region.

MantiSpectra: Replacing bulky spectrometers 

MantiSpectra developed ChipSense, a compact and portable spectral sensor that replaces bulky spectrometers for cost-effective material analysis.

By using AI, MantiSpectra’s platform enables highly accurate and rapid material composition analysis directly where it is needed. 

The platform’s applications include agrifood production, recycling facilities to differentiate plastics and fibres, process analytics for real-time control, and new consumer devices with accurate data.

MantiSpectra already has customers and partners actively using their spectral platform in over twenty countries, including Fortune 500 companies and three of the world’s top 10 food and beverage companies. 

The investors

Innovation Industries is a Dutch deep tech venture capital firm with over €500M in capital under management and a leading player in Western Europe. 

The VC invests in deeptech companies with the potential to solve global challenges in three focus areas: industrial technology, med-tech, and agri & food technology.

The current investment was made via the Early Stars Fund managed by Innovation Industries.

Vincent Kamphorst, Investment Director at Innovation Industries, says, ”MantiSpectra’s unique miniaturised photonics solution can enable mass market adoption of spectroscopy towards consumer-level scale. This can make a huge positive impact, with applications in healthy living and reduction of food waste, to name just a few. We’re looking forward to supporting the team in further commercialising and scaling the business.”

PhotonVentures is a deeptech venture capital firm focused on the key enabling technology of integrated photonics. 

As a spin-off and strategic partner of PhotonDelta, the European hub for the integrated photonics industry, they have in-house expertise that gives thorough understanding of the industry’s success drivers and value inflection points. 

Pieter Klinkert, partner at PhotonVentures, says, “MantiSpectra is a great example of unique applications making use of Integrated Photonics. It underlines the difference and impact that Integrated Photonics in leading sensing applications. We have been working together with MantiSpectra’s team since 2020 and they are as stellar as their technology. We applaud their ambition and are proud we are able to continue supporting them towards their future success”