Astrape's EIC Accelerator Rewires the Data Centre at Layer 1

A modern data centre runs three or more separate networks, for AI and high-performance computing, for storage and for applications, each with its own hardware and cabling. Astrape Networks, founded in Eindhoven in 2022 as a spin-off of Eindhoven University of Technology, argues the reason is that the physical layer has always been static: fixed fibre paths that cannot follow traffic. Its system, now called Effiniti, makes layer 1 reconfigure itself per traffic flow, creating a dedicated optical bypass in 150 microseconds without interrupting active traffic.

The EIC Accelerator selected the project, OPTINET, at its October 2024 cut-off for blended finance, and CORDIS records a grant of €2,459,996 from June 2025 to May 2027, split between Astrape BV in Eindhoven and Astrape Networks in Schelle, Belgium. The project claims energy savings of up to 60% by removing most optical-electrical-optical conversions.

The number that sells it

Astrape's pitch rests on idle hardware. More than 32% of processor time in AI clusters is spent waiting for data, it says, utilisation sits below 45%, and a $50 million cluster therefore wastes $27 million in stranded compute. Its answer is not a faster controller above a static fibre layer but a fibre layer that adapts on its own: the switch reshapes the physical paths, the network card decides per flow what those paths should be, and neither waits for a central controller. It classifies a traffic type within two or three packets and cuts hop count from three to five down to zero to two.

The deliberate design choice is to be boring to adopt: standard Ethernet, the same cabling and skills, the same SONiC software stack, so installation is a top-of-rack swap plus the card software, with no retraining. The card can also run inside partner smart network cards and data processing units.

Claims that keep rising

The energy figure has moved. The EIC project says up to 60%; the company's current website says more than 70% energy reduction, together with twice the processor utilisation, 50 to 70% savings on capital expenditure, operating cost and energy combined, and scaling to more than 16 million processors across sites. One earlier trade report put the saving at about 20% at today's network speeds, rising toward 60% as speeds increase, which is a materially different claim.

None of it has been published as independent measurement. What Astrape has done instead is open a demonstration centre in Schelle, Belgium, where prospective customers can walk the racks, inspect the switch and the cards and run their own scenarios with its engineers for up to three days. That is an unusually falsifiable offer for a company at this stage, even if the results of those visits are private.

1. Working hardwareDemonstrableDemo centre open for hands-on visits in Belgium.
2. Energy and utilisation claimsCompany figures60% in the project, 70%+ on the website; no published test.
3. Customers among large operatorsNone namedGoogle, Equinix, AWS and Azure named only as targets.
4. Series A with EIC Fund equityNot announcedThe project requested €7.5M of EIC equity within a €15M round in 2026.

€9.5 million and a plan for €15 million more

Astrape raised €1.6 million of pre-seed money in 2023 from a Dutch regional syndicate, then closed a €7.9 million seed round in April 2025 co-led by PhotonVentures, Join Capital and the Brabant Development Agency with Shift Invest, a round that included the €2.5 million EIC grant, as IO+ reported. The project record also shows what the company asked the EIC for beyond the grant: €7.5 million of EIC Fund equity inside a planned €15 million Series A in 2026. No such round has been announced, and no EIC Fund investment is public.

The revenue projections in the project are steep: significant revenue from 2028, more than €500 million by 2029, and 3% of the global data centre networking market by 2032. The CORDIS page also contradicts itself on timing, putting market readiness at 2026 in one place and 2028 in another.

A European switch for an American market

Data centre switching is an American and Taiwanese business, and the customers Astrape names as targets are hyperscalers. What makes it a European project is the supply chain behind it: the Eindhoven photonics cluster, PhotonDelta and PhotonVentures as investors, and engineering in Belgium. The EIC's interest is partly energy: if AI clusters keep growing, the network is one of the few places where a large share of their power can be removed, and the project is framed around sustainability as much as speed.