Rockley Photonics
- 🦄Became a unicorn2021
- 📈Peak valuation$1.2 Billion ’21
- 💔Became a Unitard2023
- 💸Last valuationWiped out
Total raised averaged per day over approximately 10.0 years from founding to bankruptcy or shutdown. This is not measured cash burn. Methodology
The rise & fall
6 moments · 2013–2023The key moments, with employee sentiment along the way.
💬 entries paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗; dated facts carry their source.
How it happened
Rockley Photonics was a UK silicon-photonics company known for biosensing technology and ties to Apple, going public via SPAC in 2021 near a $1.2B valuation. The loss of a key customer and financing pressures led to a sharp decline, and the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2023, wiping out nearly all equity value.
As investor money dried up with rising rates, staff recounted repeated rounds of mass layoffs and constant changes of direction — a company that oversold its technology and chased more than it could ship.
Source: Crunchbase
Where they went
- Andrew Rickmanfounder & CEOFounder & Chairman at Rockley Group
Current roles as self-reported on LinkedIn, retrieved 2026-08-19. See our methodology.
Disclosed investors (11)
Historical funding participation; lists may be incomplete and do not establish current ownership or investor losses.
* Lead in a funding round · Crunchbase ↗ · 2026-10-13 · Methodology · Leaderboard
