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Finalists Announced for 2026 SPIE Startup Challenge, Showcasing Innovative, Investment-Ready Optics and Photonics Technologies and Applications

via Business Wire

The annual pitch competition final will be held at SPIE Photonics West

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 on 20 January.

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Eventual winner, Trey Daunis of Max-IR Labs, pitches their innovative technology during the 2025 SPIE Startup Challenge, engaging judges and a packed audience at SPIE Photonics West.

Eventual winner, Trey Daunis of Max-IR Labs, pitches their innovative technology during the 2025 SPIE Startup Challenge, engaging judges and a packed audience at SPIE Photonics West.

The SPIE Startup Challenge is a competitive entrepreneurial platform for new businesses that utilize optics and photonics for innovative products or applications. Participating teams are competing for sponsored prizes, in addition to gaining increased visibility with potential investors and exposure to potential collaborators or partners. 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 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 earlier this year, 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.

“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 during that event. “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 for 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 Inc.: Lucerix CZ - iCoagLab, real-time bedside profiling to guide transfusion and anticoagulation. Faster, smaller, smarter hemostasis management.
  • Seaborough: EuroLED®, nano-engineered phosphors delivering brighter light, lower carbon, and real savings.
  • Seedsight: Seedsight Platform, AI-powered optics for safer, fairer, and more sustainable cereals—nourishing millions worldwide.
  • TomoFlow S.r.l.: TF100m, the imaging flow cytometer for the years ahead. Our secret recipe: Never dye. Just add flow. Let it roll. Swell your world. Go 3D!
  • RayVen Laser GmbH: RayVen, building solid-state, high-energy, and compact ultrafast laser systems emitting at 2.1 μm range.
  • SPKL LLC: SPKL Flow Monitor, building low-cost, wearable blood flow monitors—empowering stroke first responders to save lives when every second counts.
  • DeepEn GmbH: DeepEn One™, a hair-thin holographic endoscope unlocking subcellular imaging deep inside living tissue.

More information about the 2026 finalists and the SPIE Startup Challenge can be found here.

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 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: https://spie.org/pw

About SPIE

SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, brings engineers, scientists, students, and business professionals together to advance light-based science and technology. The Society, founded in 1955, connects and engages with our global constituency through industry-leading conferences and exhibitions; publications of conference proceedings, books, and journals in the SPIE Digital Library; and career-building opportunities. Over the past five years, we have invested more than $26 million in the international optics community through our advocacy and support, including scholarships, educational resources, travel grants, endowed gifts, and public-policy development. www.spie.org.

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