Anello Photonics pulls in $25M as GPS-denied navigation demand rises

Anello Photonics, which specializes in solid-state inertial navigation systems, has raised $25 million in a Series B-2 round led by MESH.

The company builds inertial sensors and navigation systems designed to keep vehicles and platforms operating when GPS is denied or degraded. On its website, Anello says its systems combine silicon photonics with sensor fusion to deliver fiber-optic-class precision in a smaller, lighter, and more cost-efficient form factor. Its products are aimed at land, air, and sea use cases, including maritime systems, unmanned aerial systems, robotics, construction, agriculture, autonomous vehicles, and defense platforms.

That positioning matters because Anello is selling into a market where reliable navigation is increasingly tied to autonomy and to operation in difficult environments. The company explicitly frames its opportunity around GPS-denied conditions such as indoor settings, canopy cover, urban canyons, and jamming. It also says the autonomous navigation market is growing and creating demand for cost-effective, high-performance navigation sensors.

Anello’s pitch is that its SiPhOG technology, described by the company as a Silicon Photonics Optical Gyroscope, can close the gap between performance and size or cost. The website calls the technology “category-disruptive” and says it is designed to provide resilient, high-precision navigation across land, air, and sea. Current products listed by the company include maritime and aerial inertial navigation systems, a ground INS, a ground IMU, and the X3 IMU, an ultra-compact 3-axis optical gyro IMU for aerial missions.

The company did not disclose a specific use of proceeds in the provided materials. What is clear from the product lineup and application pages is that Anello is building for autonomy at the edge, with an emphasis on positioning, attitude, and platform stabilization when satellite navigation cannot be trusted.

For investors, the bet is straightforward: if GPS resilience becomes a requirement rather than a feature, companies that can deliver compact, high-precision inertial navigation systems should have a wider opening across defense, robotics, maritime, and autonomous vehicle markets. Anello is arguing that silicon photonics gives it that opening.