Singular Photonics, an Edinburgh-based developer of image sensors built on single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs), has closed an oversubscribed $2.15 million funding round. ACF Investors led the round, with participation from Wren Capital, Cambridge Angels, Scottish Enterprise, Quantum Exponential and Old College Capital. The company also named Dipesh Patel, the former chief technology officer of Arm, to its board of directors.
Singular has already doubled its full-year 2025 sales in 2026, according to the company, driven by customer engagements across machine vision, industrial automation and scientific imaging. That growth includes a collaboration with Renishaw, the metrology and inspection instrumentation maker. Engineers evaluating next-generation inspection and machine-vision systems will care about the underlying sensor shift: unlike conventional image sensors that measure light intensity, SPAD-based sensors detect and time individual photons, and Singular pairs that with on-chip computation to analyze information where the light is first captured rather than downstream.
Patel spent 25 years at Arm in general and technical management roles, finishing as CTO overseeing the company's research and digital IT functions. "Singular Photonics is transforming image sensors from passive imaging devices into intelligent sensing platforms," Patel said. The new capital will go toward scaling engineering headcount and shortening time-to-market for a next generation of sensors, according to the company, targeting machine vision, industrial automation, physical AI, scientific discovery and medical imaging.
CEO Shahida Imani said the company is "approaching break-even" and that the oversubscribed round lets it expand its sensor portfolio "on our customers' timelines, not just our own." Tim Mills, managing partner at ACF Investors, framed the bet as a shift in the sensor market "from capturing images to generating actionable insights directly from light itself." Existing shareholders also joined the round, meeting or exceeding their pre-emption rights, a detail the company points to as a signal of investor confidence heading into its next product cycle.
