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Salience Labs $125m Series B includes £10m from British Business Bank

Writer: Shawn Jhanji
Shawn Jhanji
5 days ago
2 min read

The Salience Labs $125m Series B includes £10m from the British Business Bank, the Bank said on 14 October 2026. Bullhound Capital led the round for the Oxford photonics company, with AMD Ventures and Intel Capital among the investors. The funds will go towards manufacturing, deployment and expansion into the US.


Close view of a photonic chip with fine optical waveguides and amber light paths inside a data centre rack
Illustrative image: a photonic chip of the kind used in optical switching for data centres. Image generated with AI.

Salience was founded in 2021 as a spin out from the Universities of Oxford and Münster. It makes optical circuit switches for AI data centres, which route data as light rather than converting it to electrical signals.


The investment is one of several Bank announcements this month, listed below, and it sits alongside the Bank's push into scout networks and regional funds and the finding that London ranked first in Europe in the Dealroom 2026 report.


Who invested in the Salience Labs Series B

New investors include SBI Group and Hudson River Trading. Existing investors Applied Ventures, Oxford Science Enterprises, Cambridge Innovation Capital and Silicon Catalyst Ventures also took part.


A fortnight of British Business Bank announcements

The Bank's news listing shows a run of announcements. Living Optics came on 5 October, Fuel Ventures on 8 October and the regional funds research on 13 October. Salience Labs and TSP Ventures followed on 14 October, and £180m across six AI and deeptech funds on 15 October.


Taken together, the announcements mix a direct equity cheque, regional angel and fund backing, and a large fund commitment. Each has a different effect on founders: a fund commitment widens the pool of managers, while a direct cheque backs one company's growth.


The practical reading is that a £10m direct cheque is a signal that the Bank will follow strategic and venture investors into later stage deeptech hardware. The counter argument is that £10m is a small minority of a $125m round, and the lead and strategic investors sit outside the UK, so the Bank is a participant rather than an anchor.


Key takeaways

  • Salience Labs raised a $125m Series B led by Bullhound Capital, including £10m from the British Business Bank, announced on 14 October 2026.

  • New investors include SBI Group and Hudson River Trading, and AMD Ventures and Intel Capital also took part.

  • The money is for manufacturing, deployment and US expansion of Salience's optical circuit switches for AI data centres.



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