You Won't Believe Which 10 Startups Made the Cut for the 2026 SPIE Challenge—Find Out Now!

On January 20, 2026, the 16th annual SPIE Startup Challenge will showcase seven innovative early-stage startup companies competing for a total of $10,000 in prizes at Photonics West 2026. This annual challenge serves as a vital entrepreneurial platform for businesses that leverage optics and photonics in their products and applications, highlighting the intersection of technology and real-world problem-solving.

The top three finalists will receive cash prizes of $10,000, $5,000, and $2,500, courtesy of Startup Challenge Founding Partner Jenoptik, along with support from Lead Sponsors Avo Photonics and Hamamatsu, and Supporting Sponsor Luminate. Notably, the 2026 competition will also introduce the inaugural SPIE Jay Kumler Innovation Award to honor the late Jay Kumler, former President of Jenoptik North America and a respected SPIE Fellow.

“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 Trey Daunis, Vice President of Technology at Max-IR Labs, the winner of the 2025 SPIE Challenge. “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.”

The judges for this year's competition will comprise venture capitalists and business development experts from the photonics industry, who will evaluate applicants on their business case, financial viability, and competitive advantages. The 2026 finalists are developing solutions across a diverse array of sectors, including healthcare, nanotechnology, ultrafast lasers, and agriculture. Here are the seven finalists and their technologies:

• Coalesenz: Lucerix CZ – iCoagLab, which offers real-time bedside profiling to guide transfusion and anticoagulation.
• Seaborough: EuroLED, a nano-engineered phosphor delivering brighter light while lowering carbon emissions and costs.
• Seedsight: Seedsight Platform, an AI-powered optical system aimed at creating safer, fairer, and more sustainable cereals.
• TomoFlow: Developer of the TF100m imaging flow cytometer.
• RayVen Laser: Solid-state, high-energy, compact ultrafast laser systems emitting in the 2.1 μm range.
• SPKL LLC: SPKL Flow Monitor; low-cost, wearable blood flow monitors designed to empower stroke first responders.
• DeepEn: DeepEn One™, a hair-thin holographic endoscope enabling subcellular imaging deep inside living tissue.

The SPIE Startup Challenge has become an essential platform for optics and photonics startups, many of which have gone on to achieve significant commercial success. Notable past winners include Cellino Biotech, Double Helix Optics, PhotoniCare, C. Light Technologies, Circle Optics, and In A Blink.

AR Alliance Joins SPIE

In a related development, the AR Alliance has been established as a new division of SPIE, aimed at fostering an open and interoperable augmented reality ecosystem and supply chains. This alliance will provide a collaborative environment for organizations of all sizes to actively participate in advancing the augmented reality hardware development landscape.

Dr. Bharath Rajagopalan, Chair of the AR Alliance and Director of Strategic Marketing at STMicroelectronics, stated, “We are building AR together. 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.” He emphasized the importance of the AR Alliance in harmonizing approaches to advance, unify, and grow the global AR supply chain.

SPIE CEO Kent Rochford noted, “Optics and photonics are a key enabler of augmented reality technology, and SPIE has had an impactful presence in 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.” He expressed enthusiasm for the new partnership with the AR Alliance to cultivate a robust AR industry powered by optics and photonics.

The SPIE Startup Challenge and the establishment of the AR Alliance signal significant advancements in the fields of optics, photonics, and augmented reality, showcasing the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit driving these sectors forward. For more information and to register for SPIE Photonics West, visit SPIE Photonics West.