LightSolver wins $1.8m IIA grant to advance laser-based HPC platform
LightSolver, a subsidiary of Nasdaq-listed CollPlant Biotechnologies, has secured a grant of approximately $1.8 million from Israel's Innovation Authority (IIA) to continue development of its Laser Processing Unit (LPU), an all-optical, laser-based computing platform. The IIA approved the programme following a review of the technology's feasibility, commercial potential, and expected contribution to the Israeli economy.
The funded programme covers three main workstreams: developing a new generation of LPU hardware specifically targeting partial differential equation (PDE) solvers; expanding the algorithmic toolkit within the LPU Lab platform so customers can conduct independent R&D on the system; and integrating the LPU into heterogeneous high-performance computing (HPC) environments alongside conventional CPUs and GPUs. LightSolver also plans to develop and test new hardware and software architectures, plus advanced calibration and control capabilities, under the grant.
Institutional momentum
The IIA award adds to what LightSolver describes as growing institutional backing. The company holds a strategic partnership with Boeing to develop a laser-based accelerator for large-scale engineering simulation, a paid multi-year engagement with the Israel Ministry of Defence for compute-intensive applications, and funding from the European Innovation Council. The company also recently co-authored peer-reviewed research with the High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS) on sparse linear solvers, and has filed a US provisional patent application covering PDE-based scientific and engineering simulations.
Dr. Ruti Ben Shlomi, co-founder and chief executive of LightSolver, described the IIA support as "a strong vote of confidence in the LPU and in the role laser-based computing can play in the next generation of high-performance computing." She added that the programme is intended to fund work that moves the company "from a validated platform toward commercial systems," encompassing next-generation PDE hardware, deeper HPC integration, and progress toward the next phase of manufacturing and supply chain.
The release also noted that parent company CollPlant intends, subject to shareholder approval and Nasdaq confirmation, to rename itself OptiPhi Computing Ltd. and change its ticker from CLGN to OPHI, signalling a strategic pivot toward its photonic computing assets and away from its legacy biotechnology business.
Market and competitive context
Analogue and optical computing approaches are attracting renewed interest as the energy and latency costs of GPU-based inference and simulation workloads grow. LightSolver competes in a nascent field that also includes silicon photonics startups and other non-von-Neumann architectures being developed across North America, Europe, and Japan. The focus on PDE solving is a relatively specific and defensible niche: PDEs underpin computational fluid dynamics, structural analysis, and electromagnetic simulation, all of which are core to aerospace, defence, and scientific computing workflows. These are precisely the verticals LightSolver's Boeing and Ministry of Defence partnerships address.
Government R&D grant funding of this scale, while meaningful for an early-stage subsidiary, is relatively modest compared with the capital requirements for bringing novel computing hardware to production. The IIA grant is subject to customary terms, which under Israeli innovation law typically include royalty payment obligations and restrictions on transferring funded know-how or manufacturing operations outside Israel. Those constraints are worth noting for prospective international partners or acquirers.
The key near-term milestones for LightSolver will be publishing benchmarked PDE-solving performance data, naming commercial customers beyond existing partnership frameworks, and demonstrating scalable manufacturing. The parent company's pending rebrand to OptiPhi Computing suggests the board is prepared to anchor its public market identity firmly around the LPU thesis.