07:53 AM EST, 01/31/2025 (MT Newswires) -- POET Technologies ( POET ) rose 2% in U.S. pre-market on Friday after the company agreed to develop a novel optical engine for use in a high-frequency securities trading operation for a global capital markets firm.

U.S.-listed shares of the company were last seen up US$0.10 at US$4.760 in pre-market trading.

"The multi-phase project is a pioneering effort to increase the speed and decrease the latency inherent in current transceiver solutions utilized by securities trading operations," the company said in a statement.

The first phase will begin immediately with POET designing prototypes of POET Optical Interposer-based transceiver engines built to meet the customer's specification. Subsequent phases include building additional prototypes and, if successful, production optical engines customized for this application.

Shares of the company closed up $0.22 or 3.3%, to $6.80 on Thursday on the TSX Venture Exchange.