Luminate NY Reveals Companies Selected for Sixth Cohort

Empire State Development (ESD) has announced the 10 companies selected to take part in round six of the Luminate NY accelerator program, investment fund, and competition. Each finalist will receive an initial investment of $100,000 and will have the chance to compete for up to $2 million in follow-on funding upon completion of the accelerator program.

The cohort will begin on April 17, 2023.

Luminate NY's sixth cohort will begin April 17. To date, Luminate has invested $15 million in 53 startups. The companies in the portfolio have raised an additional $194.7 million and now share a net worth of $645.7 million. Courtesy of Luminate.

The selected companies:

AquaRealTime is protecting waterways with a scalable, early warning and monitoring system that detects harmful algae blooms and water contaminants.

Digiteyez is providing eye care on demand with 24/7 access to fast, accurate eye testing, regular vision checks, and connections with eye doctors — from any digital device.

NanoPattern Technologies Inc. is commercializing a patented chemistry and ink that enables display manufacturers to make high-resolution screens that are more sustainable for smartphones, wearables, and AR/VR applications.

Norcon is creating advanced optical polymer and lensing technology for making 3D depth imagers faster, more accurate, and less expensive.

Oculi is making computer vision faster and more efficient by embedding intelligence in the sensor, starting at the pixel — the true edge.

Photonect Interconnect Solutions is developing a laser adhesion technique to attach optical fibers to photonic chips that is 10× faster, less expensive, and more efficient than conventional glue methods.

PlanOpSim is helping R&D teams solve complicated design and integration problems by providing a single workflow design software for planar and meta-optics.

QART Medical is providing novel information to clinicians selecting sperm cells to use in IVF procedures, allowing evidence-based decisions centered on empirical data.

Quantune is bringing the first chip-size laser spectrometer for the mid-infrared spectral range — the “molecular fingerprint region” — to market to allow continuous, noninvasive monitoring of molecular biomarkers such as glucose on the wrist (with lab-grade quality).

Swave Photonics is addressing current AR/VR limitations by developing the world’s first spatial light modulator for true digital holography.

Under a partnership with the Silicon Catalyst (SI) incubator, which focuses on accelerating semiconductor solutions, Oculi and Swave will participate in Luminate’s and SI’s programming concurrently. Two additional companies, Archangel Imaging and Labby, will take part in Luminate out of the finalist structure to gain access to regional resources. Archangel, the 2022 Grand Prize winner of the Genius NY competition, deploys smart machines alongside people to protect valuable remote assets and at-risk staff. Labby, a $250,000 winner at the 2022 Grow NY competition, provides dairy farms with rapid, accurate, and affordable solutions that leverage AI-enabled optical sensing for raw milk testing in less than a minute.

The accelerator received 120 applications for consideration. One-third of the applications came from outside of the U.S., Luminate said.

Since its inception, Luminate has invested $15 million in 53 startups. The companies in the portfolio have raised an additional $194.7 million and now share a net worth of $645.7 million.

Funding for the $45 million program, which was created and is run by NextCorps, is provided through the Finger Lakes Forward Upstate Revitalization Initiative. Round six kicks off an additional four-year commitment by New York state to continue the Luminate NY program.