French deeptech company Cailabs has raised €57 million to accelerate its industrial expansion and global growth. The round of structured financing, led by the European Investment Bank (EIB), combines a €37 million financing from the EIB and a €20 million investment from Definvest and Fonds Innovation Defense (Armed Forces ministry and Bpifrance), NewSpace Capital, the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, Starquest Capital, and CAIVE.
Cailabs is a deeptech photonics company founded in 2013, operating in France and the United States. Leveraging expertise in photonics and systems engineering, it designs and manufactures laser-light solutions for the space, telecommunications, industrial, and defence markets.
Its portfolio includes turnkey optical ground stations that use atmospheric turbulence compensation to enable high-throughput, low-latency links across space and terrestrial networks, with a focus on precise light control to deliver faster, safer, and more reliable performance.
Commenting on the strategic importance of Cailabs’ work and the rationale for the investment, Ambroise Fayolle, Vice-President of the European Investment Bank, noted that space technologies are increasingly vital for civilian, security, and defense applications:
As the bank of the European Union, the EIB supports Cailabs’ investments in manufacturing capabilities and in research & development of its laser communication technologies.
Fayolle added that the project fully aligns with the EIB’s strategic priorities in security and defence, as well as technological innovation, under its TechEU programme.
Securing this structured financing signals Cailabs’ growing commercial maturity, supported by a backlog of more than ten optical ground stations already under contract.
The funds will accelerate manufacturing scale-up and strengthen the supply chain. A new industrial platform, capable of assembling and validating five stations in parallel, will support the goal of producing up to 50 OGS annually by 2027.
The financing will also support international expansion and advance the product portfolio with turnkey 100+ Gbps solutions, transportable optical ground stations, and expanded orbit coverage.
This funding round reflects our solid fundamentals and the confidence investors have in our strategic vision. It enables us to scale up industrial capabilities and prepare for the next stage of growth,
concluded Jean-Francois Morizur, co-founder and CEO of Cailabs.
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