See the Future Accelerated at Luminate Finals 2022
Join us in person or online for Luminate Finals 2022 as startups from around the world introduce their innovations and pitch for up to $2 million in follow-on funding. Vote for your favorite startup to help them take home the Audience Choice Award and $10,000 cash. Plus, hear from keynote speaker Michal Lipson, decorated physicist known for her work in the field of silicon photonics.
At Luminate, we get a close-up look at emerging technologies that have the potential to shake up the status quo. Now it’s your turn to glimpse into the future and see what’s coming up in aerospace, clean tech, healthcare, quantum, and other industries. In-person tickets are limited, so register soon!
Regional Investor Week Recap
The startups of cohort 5 met with investors from across the Finger Lakes region earlier this month, and some offered on-the-spot critique to help strengthen our startup teams’ pitches.
Thank you to the following groups and individuals for sharing your time and expertise:
Corning Incorporated- Derby Management
- Empire State Development
- Excell Partners
- Jack Greco
- Skull Diamond and Heart Capital, LLC
Days spent in conference rooms were balanced by nights on the town. We took cohort 5 teams to ride the rides at the historic Seabreeze Amusement Park, go bowling at Radio Social, and test their trivia knowledge at Ride White & Brew of Rochester.
Next up, we’re headed to New York City in September, where our teams will have the chance to pitch 10+ more investors.
Cohort 5 in the News
The Rochester Business Journal’s series on cohort 5 continues with spotlights on MEETOPTICS, SCOUT, and LIDROTEC. Learn how these startup companies are tackling challenges in the optics and photonics supply chain, the rapidly evolving space industry, and semiconductor manufacturing:
- MEETOPTICS uses AI to make the search for optics and photonics components easy and accessible
- SCOUT ushers in a new era of space safety
- LIDROTEC reduces high waste in the microchip manufacturing process
Portfolio Updates
Pass the pretzels, Arnold. Custom Surgical has been selected to pitch for the Golden Pretzel Award at the semifinals of Bits & Pretzels, Europe’s leading founders festival. This year’s 5,000-attendee event kicks off with speaker Arnold Schwarzenegger. Good luck, Custom Surgical!
One hoot of a month! Owl Autonomous Imaging made the shortlist for the AutoSens Awards 2022. They’ll find out if they won Hardware Development of the Year in Brussels on September 13. Owl also scored coverage in Middle Market Growth’s in-depth look at the pedestrian safety tech market and recent surge of regulatory support. Check out the article and scroll down for an interview with Owl CEO, Chuck Gershman.
Designing for the future. Quantopticon was interviewed on The Post-Quantum World podcast, where they spoke about their software design tool that can help optimize photonic quantum computing. Catch the episode to learn how this tool can develop higher-fidelity qubits and effective quantum memory.
Inspiring Careers in Light: The Optics Suitcase Program
Members of Optica’s Rochester Section (ROSA) have developed an innovative way to get middle-school-age kids excited about concepts in the study of light. The Optics Suitcase program is an international initiative that makes it easy and fun for optics professionals to share experiments that highlight their jobs, and help students envision careers in optics or technology. To date, more than a thousand of these educational outreach kits have been delivered to classrooms around the world.
Learn about the Optics Suitcase program and how you can get involved.
Applications Open for 2023 Prism Awards
2023 marks the 15th anniversary of the Prism Awards, SPIE’s annual international competition honoring the best new optics and photonics products on the market. If you launched a product between Photonics West 2022 and September 2022, apply by September 15.
Building a Startup in Quantum or Photonics Tech?
If you’re an early-stage entrepreneur or tech startup in the quantum space, check out this comprehensive startup resource list from the Founder Institute. Broken down by startup stage, it includes networking events, training programs, investors, incubators, and accelerator programs — like Luminate (thanks for the shoutout!) and the Founder Institute’s upcoming Quantum & Photonics Virtual 2022 Program.
