Groundbreaking UK startup, Optalysys expands team with NASA scientist and launches Series A funding round

Former NASA Johnson Space Center scientist, Dr. Richard Juday, has joined the UK supercomputing startup, Optalysys Ltd, as a technical advisor.

Optalysys has also announced that they have launched a Series A funding round to support product commercialisation activities up to the first product launches in 2017.

Optalysys is days away from launching a prototype optical processor with the potential to realise Exascale levels of processing power on a desktop sized computer at a fraction of the energy consumption and cost of conventional supercomputers and high performance computing ("HPC") technology.

Grant Thornton UK LLP is supporting the Series A funding round.

Darren Bear, partner at Grant Thornton UK LLP, notes "This is a unique opportunity to provide funding to support the development of disruptive optical processing technology, which has the potential to revolutionise HPC, by reaching far beyond the capabilities of traditional technology."

Optalysys CEO, Dr. Nick New, explains "Optalysys' technology will deliver processing power beyond the capabilities of traditional HPC methods and will offer functionality that digital cannot provide, bringing the step change in computing power that is required in Big Data and Computational Fluid Dynamics ("CFD") applications, for a fraction of the price and power consumption. This investment will support us in bringing our initial products to market in 2017."

Dr. Juday was the head of the Hybrid Vision Laboratory at NASA where he oversaw image processing and pattern recognition using digital computations and coherent optics encoding and filtering.

Dr. Nick New, says "We are excited to have Dr. Juday onboard. He is a renowned expert in optical processing and liquid crystal technology. His expertise and connections will be an invaluable asset to the Optalysys team."

Dr. Juday comments "I am looking forward to working with Dr. Nick New and the team at Optalysys. The technology they are developing is truly a game-changer for computer processing."

Dr Juday is based in Colorado, USA and holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University. He is a Fellow member of SPIE and of OSA, holds nine US patents, and is co-author of Correlation Pattern Recognition, a Cambridge book for which he wrote the optics sections. His other current notable areas of work include a NASA funded project to explore the principles of future space travel technology using White-Juday warp field interferometers.

A short film explaining the revolutionary Optalysys technology, narrated by Professor Heinz Wolff, is available to view here.

Please direct any investment enquiries to the Grant Thornton UK LLP contacts below:

• Richard Loveday, Associate Director, richard.j.loveday@uk.gt.com, 01223 225639
• Emily Twigg, Executive, emily.c.twigg@uk.gt.com, 01223 225676

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Notes to editors:

About Optalysys:

Optalysys was founded in 2013 by Dr Nick New and James Duez.

A renowned world expert in optical pattern recognition, Dr New developed the forerunner to the Optalysys technology whilst carrying out PhD in electrical engineering at Cambridge University.

Dr New went on to forge relationships with military and other organisations including missile systems developer MBDA and NASA before securing funding to take Optalysys forward.

Optalysys Chairman James Duez is a respected business and technology innovator who has pioneered several award-winning technologies.

James has worked extensively with Global 250 organisations and government departments including the Ministry of Defence and the US Department of Defense.

Dr. Richard Juday retired from NASA in 2001 after 35 years. He was most recently the manager of the Hybrid Vision Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center.

The Optalysys team includes specialists in software development, free-space optics, optical engineering and production engineering.

The company has several patents covering its groundbreaking technology.

Find out more at www.optalysys.com

© 2015 Optalysys Ltd. All rights reserved

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© 2015 Grant Thornton UK LLP. All rights reserved