- LITILIT received an €8 million loan from Lithuania’s national development bank, ILTE, to develop FEMODA, a modular femtosecond laser made for use in factories.
- The project, which costs €10 million, aims to deliver up to 1,000W of power across 10 to 20 beam channels. The company plans to start selling it in the second half of 2029.
- This project comes after LITILIT started building a large factory in Vilnius, which is set to open this fall. The factory aims to produce up to 3,000 femtosecond lasers each year.
Femtosecond lasers are precise enough to reshape a cornea or cut a computer chip without heat. But using them outside labs is hard because they usually need water cooling, large optical setups, and steady temperatures. LITILIT wants to remove these requirements.
The Vilnius-based company received an €8 million loan from ILTE, Lithuania’s national development bank, to build FEMODA, a modular femtosecond laser system it began developing in 2024.
“We’re building a system that combines the control electronics, optics, and cooling into a single industrial unit that can easily integrate into any factory. Our new modular platform will be less sensitive to temperature, humidity, and vibration, and its modules can be combined into a more powerful system. If one fails, only that module needs replacing, not the whole system,” said Nikolajus Gavrilinas, LITILIT co-founder and CEO.
What FEMODA is designed to do
The project costs €10 million, with LITILIT putting in €2 million. It aims for up to 1,000W of optical power spread over 10 to 20 beam channels. Each channel can send femtosecond pulses to different spots on a production line.
Gavrilinas says this makes FEMODA one of the most powerful modular femtosecond systems for industry, built for big jobs like mass-producing metal tools and adding special coatings to aircraft and car bodies.
“Currently, femtosecond lasers are mostly used in manufacturing high-value small parts. Our new laser system will open new applications in existing large-scale industries, such as the mass production of metal tools and the application of specialised coatings on large surfaces, such as aircraft or car bodies. It will also speed up current femtosecond laser applications, from consumer electronics to displays and chips,” Gavrilinas said.
LITILIT was founded in 2015 by Gavrilinas, Kęstutis Regelskis, and Nerijus Rusteika. The company makes lasers based on patents developed with Vilnius’ Center for Physical Sciences and Technology.
Coherent Corp, TRUMPF, and IPG Photonics lead the ultrafast laser market. TRUMPF has expanded through acquisitions to offer integrated source-optics-automation systems that reduce integration risk for buyers.
LITILIT aims for a similar goal by developing a smaller, purpose-built unit instead of combining existing components. The system’s effectiveness in real factory environments remains to be seen.
A loan and a factory already under construction
ILTE gave the loan this year to fund FEMODA and also a separate project: a large laser factory in Vilnius that LITILIT started building in June and plans to open this fall. The factory aims to make 3,000 femtosecond lasers a year. Gavrilinas said it is one of the biggest femtosecond laser factories in the world by capacity.
LITILIT is working on two projects at the same time: FEMODA, a research investment in a new type of laser, and the factory project, which aims to increase production to meet demand.
So far, LITILIT has raised $11.94 million in equity, including a $3.85 million round in November 2022 led by Iron Wolf Capital and Taiwania Capital. This was Taiwania Capital’s first investment in Lithuania from its $200 million fund for Central and Eastern Europe. The current number of employees at LITILIT is TK.
“Investments in research and experimental development are essential for Lithuanian companies to create high-value-added products and remain competitive in global markets,” ILTE board member Giedrė Gečiauskienė said when the bank first announced the loan.
A market still dominated by established companies
The global ultrafast laser market was worth about $2.86 billion in 2025 and is expected to reach $5.83 billion by 2030, growing at 15.3% per year. Most of the market is still controlled by a few big companies, and LITILIT is not at that scale yet.
In Lithuania’s deep tech sector, state funding often supports hardware projects that are too early-stage or too expensive for traditional venture capital. This approach has also helped companies like Oxylabs, now valued at $3.6 billion, which started at Vilnius’ Tesonet accelerator.
FFEMODA is set to ship no earlier than the second half of 2029. This long wait is a major challenge for a company that depends on a state loan to build new infrastructure, and for customers accustomed to established brands like Coherent and TRUMPF.
It remains unclear whether Lithuania’s laser industry will create a game-changing company or just another well-funded competitor.
