Arago

About Arago

Arago has built an energy-efficient AI chip powered by light, codenamed JEF, designed to run AI workloads with 10x to 30x lower energy and cost overhead. Its mission is to drive the course of history forward. Based in France, North America, and Israel, Arago has assembled a world-class team of engineers, scientists, and operators from leading companies and research labs, and is backed by executives from Apple, Arm, Nvidia, Microsoft, and Hugging Face, as well as prominent deeptech venture firms and exited founders

Nicolas Muller, Co-Founder & CEO, Arago: “Innovating in the semiconductor industry is arguably one of the toughest challenges. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been invested in this space, making it extremely difficult for startups to break through. That’s why partnering with former operators from the industry was so important to us. The depth and quality of conversation we’re able to have with the C4 Ventures team sets them apart”.

Eric Boustouller, Partner, C4 Ventures: “At C4 Ventures, we’re proud to back Arago’s world-class team of tech entrepreneurs who are not only pushing the boundaries of what’s possible through breakthrough innovation, but also accelerating the journey from deep R&D to real-world commercialization. By tackling the immense energy demands of AI, Arago is leading a true paradigm shift with its uniquely light-powered, energy-efficient AI chip — unlocking global market opportunities at unprecedented speed”.

A World-Class Founding Team

Arago is led by an outstanding team of scientists and engineers:

• Nicolas Muller (CEO) – Former early team member in EBIT-positive deeptech startups, with academic background in ML from MIT.
• Eliott Sarrey (CTO) – Condensed matter physicist from ETH and first-ever French winner of the Google Science Fair at 14 years old (article in Le Monde), with dual experience in research and product engineering. Bachelor’s in mathematics and physics from École Polytechnique.
• Ambroise Müller (CSO) – Published his first research in high-performance computational physics during undergrad at École Polytechnique, and later joined Eviden (the largest listed HPC company in France) as an AI algorithm engineer.

Why We Invested

Several compelling factors shaped our conviction in this opportunity:

• World-class technical founding team, combining academic excellence with entrepreneurial agility.
• Breakthrough innovation solving a fundamental bottleneck in AI scalability.
• Massive market potential across AI datacenters, PCs, and robotics.
• Integrated hardware and software stack, offering defensibility and differentiation.
• Strong endorsements from seasoned operators and technical advisors.
• Clear execution velocity, translating deep R&D into market-ready solutions.
• Co-investment alongside a leading European VC, Earlybird.
• High exit potential within Fund II’s disbursement horizon.

Our introduction to Arago came through trusted, long-time C4 Ventures connections:

• Bertrand Serlet, former Senior Vice President of Software Engineering at Apple, who played a key role in the development of Mac OS X, and
• Christophe Frey, VP EU Engagements & General Manager at Arm France and Arm Germany and Operating Partner at C4 Ventures.
• Bernard Ourghanlian, former CTO & CSO of Microsoft France and our Operating Partner, who contributed to the investment decision by bringing his deep expertise in semi-conductors and AI, and whom we would particulartly like to thank.

Arago founders: Nicolas, Eliott and Ambroise  with C4 Ventures (Eric Boustouller and Jean Weill)  and other investors at Arago seed closing event in Paris

Arago founders from left to right: Nicolas, Eliott, and Ambroise

Arago semiconductor device

Arago lab in Paris