Volantis Raises $88M for Photonic Inference Systems

Volantis Inc. has raised $88 million in a Series A round, the company announced on October 2, 2026, according to a report from SiliconANGLE. The round was led by angel investor Lachy Groom and Abstract Ventures. More than a half-dozen other participants joined the deal, a group that included John Doerr, chair of Kleiner Perkins, and Naveen Rao, the former head of Intel's artificial intelligence products group. The company said the capital will be used to develop a photonic inference system. The report did not disclose the valuation, the specific terms of the Series A, or the identities of the remaining investors. It also did not describe the technical design of the photonic inference system, the stage of its development, or a timeline for release. The announcement did not include a product name or version number for the photonic inference system. The only confirmed details are the size of the round, its lead investors, the broader group of participants named, and the stated purpose of the funding. The report is the only account of the funding available so far, and no later funding round has been reported. As of the announcement, the story stops there: Volantis has secured the $88 million and pointed to photonic inference as the target, but no further product milestones, deployment plans, or financial details have been reported. No subsequent updates were included in the material available.