CAMPBELL, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 24, 2026--
Light Links, the optical wireless communication company behind Wi-OW™, announced it has closed $6 million in pre-seed funding to scale production and expand deployments across industrial automation and defense. The round was led by Outlander, with participation from Anorak, Output Capital, Mana, Crosscourt, and other well-known dual-use and defense-tech VCs whose portfolios include Anduril and SpaceX.
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Light Links’ Wi-OW replaces radio with invisible infrared light. Rather than competing for crowded radio spectrum, Wi-OW transmits data as diffused laser light that reflects off walls and ceilings, so it works even when the direct path is blocked. The light stays inside the room, so no outside device can interfere, and each device gets a guaranteed slot to transmit.
The system can be implemented without significant operational changes; it is built on the same mass-produced components already deployed throughout global fiber networks, plugs in like a dongle, and uses standard Ethernet. Light Links reports throughput up to 25 Gbps symmetrical and microsecond-scale round-trip times.
“Wireless networks are no longer keeping pace with what we’re asking them to do,” said Firouz Vafadari, founder and CEO of Light Links. “Whether we’re depending on a network to communicate across a fleet of robots in a warehouse or to keep a drone on mission for national defense, that network is still built on devices politely taking turns, colliding, and retrying. Light, on the other hand, gives us wireless that performs like a wired connection.”
What This Means for Industrial Automation
Wi-Fi and private 5G were designed for best-effort traffic, not for physical AI, modern robotics and autonomous vehicles that need an answer in milliseconds.
In these applications, each node works like part of a body connected to a larger nervous system. Each node may sit meters or kilometers apart, but they must reach the central brain and react almost instantly. Without microsecond latency, physical AI and robotics cannot scale.
Light Links has validated Wi-OW with a Fortune 50 company, where the technology is now replacing Wi-Fi in live operations.
What This Means for Defense
In defense applications, radio transmissions can reveal location, making transmission in contested environments a risk in itself, while adversaries routinely employ jamming and spoofing. RF emissions are also subject to strict HERO (Hazards of Electromagnetic Radiation to Ordnance) requirements in sensitive environments, including aircraft carrier flight decks such as those aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), where ordnance and electromagnetic systems operate in close proximity.
Wi-OW carries data on light instead of radio, so there is no radio signal for an adversary to detect or jam. That makes it inherently low probability of intercept and low probability of detection. Light Links is also developing optical identification of friend or foe for drone platforms.
“Wireless communication has been living inside the limits of radio frequency for decades,” said Jordan Kretchmer, Senior Partner at Outlander VC. “Light Links diffuses light across a space the way a router diffuses RF signals. The difference is that everything inside that space gets fiber-optic speed without ever touching a cable. Firouz and his team understand that for mission-critical secure applications, the future of communications is wireless at the speed of light. This is exactly the type of category-defining advancement Outlander lives to back.”
About Light Links
Light Links, Inc. is a Silicon Valley optical wireless communication company behind Wi-OW™, a diffused laser network that delivers fiber-like speed, microsecond latency, and RF-free operation for industrial automation, robotics, defense, and secure enterprise environments. Founded in 2024 and headquartered in Campbell, California, Light Links is backed by numerous reputable U.S.-based defense-tech and dual-use institutional investors. Learn more at www.lightlinks.co.
The Light Links Team with Daniel Furtado (third from left), Mayor of Campbell.
