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12 Nov 2025
Private investor Emtek buys a majority stake in Cubert; Wasatch becomes part of Denmark's FOSS Group.
Cubert, a Germany-based maker of hyperspectral video cameras short-listed for a 2026 Prism Award, has gained a new majority owner in the form of the UK investment group Emtek Holdings.
The deal, for an unspecified sum, will see founder and CEO René Heine stay with the company alongside the current management team, which has also provided investment.
“This partnership marks the launch of the Emtek Hyperspectral Group - a new platform dedicated to advancing hyperspectral technologies,” announced the two firms.
“Cubert will serve as the cornerstone of this initiative, driving joint innovation in research, product development, and international market growth.”
Hyperspectral potential
Targets include expanding the impact of spectral imaging in industrial automation, medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and defense applications, while scaling Cubert’s technology to global markets, shortening development cycles, and accelerating commercialization.
“With Emtek, we’ve found a partner who shares our conviction that hyperspectral imaging is only beginning to reveal its full potential,” said Heine, who co-founded Ulm-headquartered Cubert back in 2012 alongside Rainer Graser and András Jung.
“This collaboration allows us to focus on what truly matters - making spectral information more accessible, useful, and impactful across real-world applications.”
At January’s Prism Awards, which take place alongside the SPIE Photonics West event, Cubert will be up against HP Inc and Metalenz in the category of “Cameras and Imaging Systems”.
The firm’s “Ultris” family of hyperspectral cameras collectively cover wavelengths from 350 nm to 1650 nm, and are targeted at applications in machine vision, medicine, defense, and remote sensing.
FOSS adds Wasatch to growing portfolio
Meanwhile the US-based spectrometer developer Wasatch Photonics is now part of FOSS Group, a family-owned Danish firm specializing in analytical equipment for the agricultural and food production sectors with a growing photonics presence.
Founded in 2002 and a Prism Award nominee back in 2013, Wasatch designs and manufactures high-sensitivity compact spectrometers and systems designed specifically for Raman spectroscopy, based on its own patented high-efficiency volume phase holographic (VPH) gratings.
The Logan, Utah, company also offers VPH gratings for pulse compression, astronomy, spectroscopy, spectral imaging, and optical coherence tomography (OCT), and has previously developed OCT systems capable of deep sub-surface imaging.
Valued at DKK250 million (approximately $39 million), the acquisition will mark the fourth venture into photonics technologies by FOSS, which has now organized those investments under the “FOSS Photonics” umbrella division, led by Kim Vejlby Hansen.
“All the companies will continue to be managed as separate business entities,” announced FOSS. “The portfolio is expected to grow further, as the FOSS family is ready to continue investing in this area.”
Climbing the mountain
Hansen added: “We believe optical components will be a key ingredient in multiple solutions across industries, and we believe FOSS has the capabilities to support and drive this development.
“The acquisition of Wasatch Photonics, a technologically strong, highly competent company, is a great opportunity to invest further in this area.”
Wasatch CEO David Creasey commented: “The strategic and cultural fit is great. FOSS is a family-owned, long-term orientated business with a deep focus on innovation and being first to the market, which is perfectly aligned with Wasatch Photonics. I believe the chances of success are far greater under the FOSS umbrella than any other.
“We love our technology, we believe in our technology, but we want to accomplish success even faster. Wasatch Photonics is named after a mountain range - metaphorically speaking we are at the base camp, but to reach the summit we need extra oxygen, and we believe FOSS can provide us with that.”
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