Finalists announced for 2026 SPIE Startup Challenge...

19 Nov 2025

...and AR Alliance becomes new division of SPIE.

Seven early-stage startup companies have been selected to compete for a top prize of $10,000 at the 16th annual SPIE Startup Challenge at Photonics West 2026 on 20 January. The SPIE Startup Challenge is a competitive entrepreneurial platform for new businesses that utilize optics and photonics for innovative products or applications.

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. The SPIE Startup Challenge is also supported by Lead Sponsors Avo Photonics and Hamamatsu, and Supporting Sponsor Luminate. The 2026 edition will also include the inaugural SPIE Jay Kumler Innovation Award, which honors former President of Jenoptik North America and SPIE Fellow Jay Kumler, who died this year.

“Our participation in the SPIE Startup Challenge has been really great for putting me into the mindset of seeking investments and talking to investors,” said 2025 SPIE Challenge Startup winner Max-IR Labs Vice President of Technology Trey Daunis (pictured, right). “I especially found a lot of value in the mentoring sessions that we did before the presentations, which were really helpful. Being one of the winners feels pretty good, and the money will come in handy as we move forward with our business plan.”

Competition judges include venture capitalists and business-development experts from the photonics industry who will vet applicants on their business case, financial case, and competitive advantages. Teams competing in the Startup Challenge will get feedback on their business and pitch from business-development experts and investors. This year’s products encompass innovations in healthcare, nanotechnology, ultrafast lasers, and agriculture. The seven 2026 SPIE Startup Challenge finalists and their technologies are:

• Coalesenz: Lucerix CZ – iCoagLab, real-time bedside profiling to guide transfusion and anticoagulation.
• Seaborough: EuroLED nano-engineered phosphors delivering brighter light, lower carbon, and cost savings.
• Seedsight: Seedsight Platform, AI-powered optics for safer, fairer, and more sustainable cereals.
• TomoFlow: developer of the TF100m imaging flow cytometer.
• RayVen Laser: solid-state, high-energy, and compact ultrafast laser systems emitting at 2.1 μm range.
• SPKL LLC: SPKL Flow Monitor; low-cost, wearable blood flow monitors—empowering stroke first responders to save lives.
• DeepEn: DeepEn One™ is a hair-thin holographic endoscope enabling subcellular imaging deep inside living tissue.

The annual SPIE Startup Challenge provides a distinctive and vibrant platform for optics and photonics startups that are creating novel products, applications, and technologies. Startup Challenge winners that have gone on to wider commercial success include Cellino Biotech, Double Helix Optics, PhotoniCare, C. Light Technologies, Circle Optics, and In A Blink.

For more information and to register for SPIE Photonics West, please visit: SPIE Photonics West.

AR Alliance becomes division of SPIE

The AR Alliance, dedicated to advancing open and interoperable augmented reality ecosystem and supply chains, announces its recent establishment as a division of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics.

The AR Alliance provides a supportive and neutral environment for organizations of all sizes to take an active role in advancing and strengthening the augmented reality hardware development ecosystem.

Diverse organizations across the expanding, global AR ecosystem, work together through The AR Alliance to speed innovation and breakthrough technologies and processes for building AR wearables and devices that create meaningful and positive experiences for users. “We are building AR together” said Dr. Bharath Rajagopalan, Chair of The AR Alliance and Director of Strategic Marketing, STMicroelectronics. “The promise of AR and its potential market are so vast that there is ample room for all our member companies, and stakeholders, to succeed together.

Rajagopalan added, “The AR Alliance is the place where concrete work takes place to harmonize approaches for advancing, unifying, and growing the global AR supply chain as well as accelerating innovation. We are delighted to be part of SPIE where we can leverage the strong synergies between our organizations and provide our respective members with access to a broader and richer ecosystem.”

“Optics and photonics are a key enabler of augmented reality technology, and SPIE has had an impactful presence on The AR scene for many years now, particularly through our SPIE AR|VR|MR conference in San Francisco and our SPIE Optical Systems Design conference in Strasbourg,” said SPIE CEO Kent Rochford. “We’re delighted to be developing this new partnership with The AR Alliance and working together to build a strong AR industry powered by optics and photonics.”