TMTPOST — Shenzhen PolarisIC Microelectronics Co., Ltd. secured RMB 100.00 million ($13.80 million) in a Series A+ financial round on Friday to expand its advanced single-photon sensing hardware pipelines. The chip design startup's fresh capital injection was led by Zhongqing Henghui Fund, with repeat participation from existing shareholders Optics Valley Sci-Tech Innovation Investment and Ruijiang Investment. Financial mechanics show that the proceeds will directly fund industrial mass production, supply chain scaling, and iterative development for the firm's core product portfolio. The hardware pioneer focuses primarily on developing direct time-of-flight (dToF) depth-sensing modules and photon counting imaging (PCI) chips built upon its proprietary single-photon avalanche diode technological architecture. These specialized hardware designs are deployed across automotive lidar setups, industrial consumer robotics, and smart home automation arrays. Hardware design firms are leveraging niche optoelectronic segments to bypass the broader fundraising slowdown affecting generic domestic semiconductor fabless startups. Ramping production scale for highly specialized dToF units allows PolarisIC to secure immediate commercial contracts within the maturing domestic automated driving and consumer robotics ecosystems. This targeted industrial revenue runway offers a more predictable path to cash-flow sustainability as primary market exit timelines face protracted local regulatory bottlenecks.