Applications open for 2026 SPIE Startup Challenge

03 Sep 2025

Annual pitch competition welcomes participants leveraging optics or photonics technologies or applications as the basis for a viable business.

Applications are now open for the 2026 SPIE Startup Challenge. The annual entrepreneurial pitch competition is held by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, as part of SPIE Photonics West.

In 2026, Photonics West will be held 17-22 January in San Francisco’s Moscone Center, with the SPIE Startup Challenge finals being held 20 January.

Related news: Startup Challenge 2025 winners.

The SPIE Startup Challenge is a competitive entrepreneurial platform for new businesses that utilize optics and photonics for innovative products or applications.

Participating teams compete for sponsored prizes, in addition to gaining increased visibility with potential investors. Cash prizes of $10,000, $5,000, and $2,500, provided by Startup Challenge Founding Partner Jenoptik, will be awarded to the top three finalists.

New for 2026: the SPIE Jay Kumler Innovation Award

The 2026 SPIE Startup Challenge will also include the inaugural SPIE Jay Kumler Innovation Award which honors former President of Jenoptik North America and SPIE Fellow Jay Kumler. Kumler, who passed away in 2025, was a longtime leader and mentor in the industry as well as a founding and driving force behind the Startup Challenge. The award, given by the competition judges, will go to the finalist who best exemplifies Kumler’s commitment to advancing optics and photonics innovation.

Light-based technologies enable developments in a proliferating number of areas, from healthcare and high-speed communications to quantum computing, AR/VR/MR, and self-driving vehicles. The annual SPIE Startup Challenge — which will be celebrating its 16th year — provides a distinctive and vibrant platform for optics and photonics startups that are creating innovative products, applications, and technologies. Startup Challenge winners who have gone on to wider commercial success include Cellino Biotech, Double Helix Optics, PhotoniCare, C. Light Technologies, Circle Optics, and In A Blink.

The industry-judged competition will hear from teams of finalists pitching new products in photonics-enabled healthcare and deep tech. Competition judges include venture capitalists and business-development experts from the photonics industry who will vet applicants for their business case, financial case, and competitive advantages. Teams applying for the Startup Challenge will get feedback on their business and pitch from business-development experts and investors.

The SPIE Startup Challenge application deadline is 7 October, 2025. Learn more about the competition, and apply here.