For nine years, the Luminate accelerator has brought ambitious founders from around the world to Rochester, New York to turn optics, photonics, imaging, and laser technologies into scalable businesses. Cohort 9 has spent the past several months strengthening go-to-market strategies, building connections, and preparing to launch their solutions into the real world.
Their progress reflects a bigger story. New York is a national leader in commercializing optics, photonics, and imaging innovation, and this momentum continues to build with the United States National Science Foundation STELLAR Engine in the Rochester and Finger Lakes region—an initiative establishing an internationally competitive cluster focused on laser technologies and innovation, business expansion, manufacturing, education, and workforce development.
Join us at Luminate Finals 2026, sponsored by Optica and presented as part of its Frontiers in Optics + Laser Science (FiO LS) conference, for a close look at the deep tech moving the future forward.
- Meet the 10 teams of Luminate cohort 9 advancing breakthrough solutions in healthcare, defense, manufacturing, quantum, and beyond.
- Get a pulse on what’s ahead for STELLAR, and how it will impact innovation and industry.
- Vote live for your favorite team to help them win this year’s Audience Choice Award and $10,000 cash.
- See the investments revealed as up to $2 million in follow-on funding is awarded, including a $1 million investment for Company of the Year.
Register to attend in person in Rochester, NY or online to grasp the future. Lunch will be provided for in-person attendees.
Cohort 9 in the news
Get to know the OPI+L innovators of Luminate cohort 9 through Rochester Business Journal’s startup spotlights. Explore the teams, technologies, and big ideas they’re bringing to market ahead of Luminate Finals 2026.
Diamond Quanta turns lab-grown diamonds into tech’s new standard
Hypervision redefines how humans see through remote machines
AB Photonics is bringing ultrafast lasers to the palm of your hand
Modendo fixes the blind spot inside AI chips (Technology pictured)
Smith Displays introduces wavemixing physics to unlock the smart glasses market
Portfolio wins
SeeTrue Technologies closed a €2.2 million financing round led by ZEISS Ventures, with participation from Superhero Capital, North Karelia Growth Fund, Luminate, and other investors. The funding will accelerate commercialization of its ultra-low-power eye-sensing technology for smart glasses, healthcare optical systems, and industrial platforms.
Bounce Imaging is finishing a $5 million growth round to scale manufacturing of its rugged, throwable 360–degree camera systems. Bounce crested $10 million in revenue last year while remaining profitable.
Qunnect announced that four quantum companies have signed on to use ABQ-Net, the first open-access entanglement-based quantum network in the U.S. Infleqtion, Aliro Technologies, Tensora, and Bandelier Technologies will use the network Qunnect built through a contract with Roadrunner Venture Studios to develop and validate technologies spanning defense, enterprise, sensing, and advanced security applications.
Circle Optics welcomed leaders from the Department of War’s Office of Industrial Base Growth to its headquarters at NextCorps to demonstrate its panoramic imaging technologies for defense, aerospace, and autonomous systems. The visit comes as Circle Optics moves toward scaled production, with approximately $2.2 million in pending orders and plans to expand its Rochester manufacturing footprint and workforce.
Diamond Quanta was selected for the HAX venture program, where it will access engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, and commercialization resources to advance its engineered diamond technology toward industrial deployment.
PlanOpSim expanded its PDK program with Phaseshift’s industry-first LWIR PDK, which will be included in an upcoming release of PlanOpSim’s MetaCell tool.
From Rochester to the big screen
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is generating plenty of buzz for its scale and cinematic experience. But for Rochester, there’s another reason to pay attention: some of the technology helping bring that experience to life has deep roots right here.
More than 2 million feet of KODAK 65 mm motion picture film (pictured), used to capture the movie, were manufactured in Rochester, along with the film used to create 35 mm, 70 mm, and IMAX 70 mm prints for theaters around the world. The choice reflects Nolan’s continued commitment to film at a time when much of the industry has gone digital. It shows how technology developed and manufactured in Rochester continues to influence what audiences see on the biggest screens.
There’s a Luminate connection to that story, too. Andy Kurtz, Chief Research Officer at Circle Optics, has had an extensive career in Rochester in optical systems R&D, including developing cinematic imaging technologies for both Eastman Kodak and IMAX. He contributed to the development of both motion picture and digital cinema projection systems, as well as Kodak’s Emmy Award-winning Spirit Datacine film scanner and IMAX’s Academy Award-winning laser cinema projectors.
“Rochester benefits from having the IMAX Cinemark Tinseltown theatre, having both 70 mm film projection and IMAX with Laser cinema projection, because of the decades-long collaboration between Kodak and IMAX on both film and digital technologies. As people become increasingly comfortable viewing movies at home, it is the large-screen theatres—like those of IMAX, with their immersive imaging and audio experiences—that can still pull people into the theatre. Visually stunning content like Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, made on Kodak’s 70 mm film and projected with film or laser by IMAX, is a pinnacle cinematic experience.”
From the film in the camera to the technology behind the theater experience, Rochester’s fingerprints are all over The Odyssey. It’s a fitting reminder that the region known as the optics capital of the world isn’t just where imaging history was made, it’s where the technologies shaping what we see next continue to take form.
News from the optics epicenter
Sydor Optics plans $32 million expansion
More optics manufacturing capacity is coming to Rochester. Sydor Optics’ new 100,000-square-foot facility will help the company meet growing customer demand while creating up to 36 jobs and strengthening the region’s precision optics manufacturing base.
URochester launches first NY THRIVE partnership to accelerate semiconductor innovation
Companies developing next-generation semiconductor technologies have a new pathway to tap into Rochester’s research expertise. The first NY THRIVE project at the University of Rochester connects Era73 Technologies with Professor Eby Friedman’s lab, backed by up to $250,000 to advance energy-efficient computing technologies.
MCC lands $1M investment to strengthen precision machining education
A $1 million gift from the Gene Haas Foundation will support more than 10,000 square feet of tooling, machining, and Computer Numerical Control training space at Monroe Community College’s new Sydor Optics Advanced Technology Center.
Events & opportunities
Manufacturing Accelerator applications open
Applications due September 30
Ready to take your prototype to production? The NextCorps Manufacturing Accelerator is a free, nine-week virtual program that connects early-stage companies with expert guidance, manufacturing partners, and funding opportunities to bring hardware products to market. Join the 9/23 info session to learn more.
NYS Innovation Summit 2026
October 27-28 | Buffalo Convention Center, Buffalo, NY
Join New York’s innovation community for expert speakers, networking, and the New York State Commercialization Competition, bringing together entrepreneurs, researchers, manufacturers, investors, and ecosystem leaders.