Lumenisity
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
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01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Lumenisity was a UK telecommunications startup, spun out of the University of Southampton's Optoelectronics Research Centre in 2017 by researchers including Francesco Poletti. It commercialized hollow-core optical fibre (HCF): cable where light travels through an air core instead of glass, cutting latency by up to 50% versus conventional fibre. Its CoreSmart cable launched in 2020, was trialled by BT and Comcast, and the company raised about £12.5 million before Microsoft acquired it in December 2022.
02 / FAILURE REASONS
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03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Company founded
Lumenisity is spun out of the University of Southampton in 2017 to commercialize hollow-core optical fibre breakthroughs.
- Product launch
The company launches its CoreSmart hollow-core cable for DWDM operation and closes a £7.5 million funding round led by BGF.
- Acquisition
Microsoft acquires Lumenisity in December 2022 to strengthen its data-center networking with fast, low-latency hollow-core fibre; the startup had raised about £12.5 million.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
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Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN / AFTERMATH
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