INSIGHTS / News

UKTIN member company, Finchetto, has been awarded £1m to develop the world’s first fully optical switch for telecoms networks.

The £70m Technology Missions Fund (TMF) Future Telecoms Mission, delivered by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), has provided the funding to advance technologies vital for upcoming telecom networks like 6G.

Finchetto is one of the sixteen businesses to secure a slice of this funding and is leading the delivery of the world’s first all-optical network switch for ultra-low power and ultra-low latency for future telecommunications networks.

The tech firm has engineered photonic processors and network switches capable of achieving light speed, allowing for accelerated and environmentally friendly computing. By harnessing photons for computation, Finchetto’s innovation leverages the particle’s rapid velocity and bandwidth to enhance data transfer rates and capacity compared to conventional electronic processors. Additionally, they offer advantages such as reduced energy consumption compared to electron-based systems and heightened data transmission speeds.

Throughout their time as members of the UK Telecoms Innovation Network (UKTIN), Finchetto has attended both the Innovation and Investment workouts, receiving wrap-around support to help them tailor their offering to the telecoms sector, create a strategy to scale, and explored how to identify and target the right investor communities.

Mark Rushworth, CEO, Finchetto said, “We are excited to be working with British Telecom on building the world’s first all-optical switch for future telecommunications network architectures. Being part of UKTIN has been invaluable in understanding and helping define where technologies like Finchetto’s can enable the UK’s national infrastructure to be more performant and importantly, more sustainable.”

Speaking on the funding, Julia Lopez, Minister for Data and Digital Infrastructure, added, “This £70m funding boost will help drive the UK’s efforts to bring forward the next wave of future telecoms technology – one of our five critical technologies. By supporting collaboration between researchers and businesses of all sizes we are helping to nurture new, game-changing advances which will deliver for people across the country.”