Arago

Arago is a French photonic-AI company that emerged from stealth in July 2025 with $26 million in seed funding co-led by Earlybird, Protagonist, and Visionaries Tomorrow. The company combines silicon photonics with free-space optics to create AI accelerators targeting 10x lower energy consumption than traditional GPUs.

Arago ships a PyTorch-compatible software stack called CARLOTA, enabling seamless integration with existing AI workflows. The company's photonic computing approach leverages the speed of light for matrix operations, dramatically reducing both latency and power consumption for AI inference workloads.

The founding team brings expertise from leading photonics and semiconductor companies, positioning Arago at the intersection of quantum photonics and practical AI acceleration.