Nicslab’s Fabless Chip Technology Earns First Place at Luminate 2024

DOMINIC ACQUISTA, DEPARTMENTS EDITOR
dominic.acquista@photonics.com

Nicslab, a Silicon Valley-based fabless chip company, was awarded top prize as the Cohort 7 winner of the Luminate NY Accelerator Competition. The company received $1 million in follow-on funding with the title, which was announced yesterday evening in Rochester, N.Y.

Nicslab is developing integrated circuits for future optical solutions, targeting applications in data centers, AI, instrumentation, and quantum computing. According to the company, its chip-scale electronic photonic solution combines the power supply, signal processor, sensors, and control into a single compact solution to offer accuracy with up to 1000 more channels than previous solutions.

(From left) Nicslab co-founder Anggi Utami and co-founder and CEO Andri Mahendra accept the $1 million prize for Company of the Year at the Luminate 2024 finals. Courtesy of Luminate.

Founded in 2017, Nicslab has already attracted attention from major players. Andri Mahendra, co-founder and CEO of the company, told Photonics Media that the company this year drew a repeat order from a semiconductor foundry in Europe that already has over $500,000 in revenue. The company has also entered into contracts with NASA as well as the U.S. armed forces.

Sujatha Ramanujan, Luminate NY managing director, said that the company’s existing sales are indicative of its success, and that the company is eyeing expansion into the U.S. Mahendra accepted the $1 million award, and said that it will be used to increase Nicslab’s presence and operations in the U.S., and Rochester specifically. Nicslab also plans to work more closely with vendors and contract manufacturers such as GlobalFoundries and AIM Photonics. Nicslab and AIM have a planned collaboration, Mahendra said, for the manufacture and packaging of Nicslabs integrated and photonic integrated circuits at AIM’s facilities in N.Y.

Luminate finalists compete for a total of $2 million in follow-on funding, the $1 million investment to the winning company, and other investments that total an additional $1 million. All winners of the competition establish operations in the Rochester area for at least the next 18 months following the close of the cohort.

Cohort 7 consisted of 10 startups selected from a pool of 137 applications sent from 25 countries. iLoF, a developer of an AI-powered photonics platform for personalized drug development, received the $400,000 Outstanding Graduate Award. AI Optics, a developer of retinal screening technology, and VoxelSensors, a developer of a sensing module for wearable devices, both took home $200,000 each in a tie for the Distinguished Graduate Award. Photosynthetic, a light-based 3D microfabrication company, received the Honorable Achievement Award worth $100,000. Traffic safety device company SaferStreet Solutions earned a $10,000 award as recipient of the Audience Choice Award.

Winners of the Luminate 2024 finals: Nicslab, iLoF, AI Optics, VoxelSensors, Photosynthetic, and SaferStreet Solutions. Courtesy of Luminate.

Funding for the program, which is administered by NextCorps, is provided through the Finger Lakes Forward Upstate Revitalization Initiative. Since its inception, Luminate has invested $18 million in 63 startups. Companies in the Luminate portfolio have raised an additional $260million and now share an estimated net worth of $675 million.