Swave Photonics, QART Medical, and PhosPrint win big at 2023 SPIE Startup Challenge
Yesterday, at a ceremony during SPIE Photonics West, Swave Photonics – with their Holographic eXtended Reality chips based on proprietary diffractive photonics technology – was announced the winner of the $10,000 top prize at the 13th annual SPIE Startup Challenge.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230201005834/en/
Jenoptik’s Ralf Kuschnereit, far left, Swave Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer Theo Marescaux, Swave CEO Mike Noonen, and 2023 SPIE Vice President Peter de Groot. Credit: Joey Cobbs.
QART Medical, utilizing biophotonics and data for 3D analysis of sperm cells during IVF, received $5,000 for second place. PhosPrint came in third, winning $2,500, with their novel bioprinting technology that repairs in vivo human tissue during surgery. All cash prizes are provided by SPIE Startup Challenge Founding Partner Jenoptik.
The SPIE Startup Challenge, a pitch competition held annually by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, showcases new businesses, products, and technologies that address critical needs by utilizing photonics in the areas of healthcare and deep tech. This year’s finalists included innovations in medical diagnostics, medical imaging, food safety, and display technology.
“It’s a privilege just to present to a such distinguished audience,” says Swave Photonics CEO Mike Noonen. “Participating at the Startup Challenge was an award in itself, but to actually win first-place recognition, well, our team is very excited. We really want to thank the sponsors and SPIE and Photonics West for the opportunity.”
“It's very nice to get the acknowledgement,” notes QART Medical CEO and Co-Founder Alon Shalev. “The judges were very supportive, and they gave us good insights yesterday in the preparation session. I think SPIE Photonics West is a wonderful, wonderful event, and a great opportunity to see and meet people. Being acknowledged is always nice, and this feels like a real achievement.”
“It was a great experience for me,” adds Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of PhosPrint Ioanna Zergioti. “It was exciting for us to have the opportunity to present our startup at the SPIE Startup Challenge. It was especially great to work with the judges, and to get feedback from senior investors in the field.”
The 2023 SPIE Startup Challenge was supported by Founding Partner Jenoptik; Lead Sponsors Edmund Optics, Hamamatsu, MKS Instruments, and Thorlabs; and Supporting Sponsors NextCorps Luminate and Photonics Media. The competition judges who vetted the applicants for their business models, financial cases, and competitive advantages included Jenoptik’s Kristin Holzhey, MKS Instruments’ Marc D. Himel, Edmund Optics' Agnes Hübscher, NextCorps Luminate’s Sujatha Ramanujan, Hamamatsu Ventures’ Richard Oberreiter, and Thorlabs’ Garrett Cole.
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 SPIE Startup Challenge is an annual entrepreneurial pitch competition for new businesses that utilize optics and photonics to create innovative 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.
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, SPIE has contributed more than $22 million to the international optics community through our advocacy and support, including scholarships, educational resources, travel grants, endowed gifts, and public-policy development. www.spie.org.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230201005834/en/
Contact information
Daneet Steffens
Public Relations Manager
daneets@spie.org
+1 360 685 5478
@SPIEtweets
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Quectel Takes Smart Meters to the Next Generation at Enlit 202519.11.2025 11:00:00 EET | Press release
Quectel Wireless Solutions, an end-to-end global IoT solutions provider, has announced it is attending the Enlit 2025 event in Bilbao, Spain on 18-20 November 2025 and will be at Stand 1.G86. Quectel is attending to showcase how its comprehensive range of modules, antennas and services are poised to assist continued massive uptake of smart meters and assist industry moves from first to second-generation devices. With deployments of smart meters, comprised of electricity, water and gas meters, exceeding 1.06 billion at the end of 2023 and set to continue in all regions, according to IoT Analytics, Quectel is seeing growth across all meter types and expansion of meter-based use cases. Smart electricity meters are being deployed in developing markets for the first time and mature markets are accelerating deployments of second-generation smart meters to help users optimize consumption and manage their own power generation via two-way metering communications. Growth is being experienced acr
Duco introduces agentic workspace; a new collaboration layer for intelligent operations19.11.2025 11:00:00 EET | Press release
Duco, the trusted control layer in an agentic world, today announced the launch of agentic workspace, a new capability within the Duco Platform designed to help operations teams work alongside intelligent agents with transparency, control and confidence. Agentic workspace is a collaboration environment where users can build, maintain, optimise, manage tasks and exceptions. All within a single, auditable workspace. It brings humans and autonomous agents together in a shared operational context, ensuring interoperability between systems while maintaining full oversight and explainability. “Agentic workspace is the next step in our mission to put people in control of automated operations,” said James Maxfield, Chief Product Officer at Duco. “As firms embrace agentic AI, they need tools that allow them to monitor, adjust and collaborate with these systems in real time. This workspace gives them that control, without slowing innovation.” By combining data automation, exception management an
Pacsun Successfully Implements Manhattan Active ® Point of Sale, Unifying Commerce and Cutting Checkout Times19.11.2025 10:00:00 EET | Press release
Manhattan Associates Inc. (NASDAQ: MANH) today announced that Pacsun, a leading youth fashion retailer, has successfully deployed Manhattan Active® Point of Sale (POS), a cloud-native in-store sales and service solution that empowers associates to merge digital convenience with personalised retailing. Following a five-month project start to pilot phase, Pacsun rolled out Manhattan's POS solution across 300 plus stores in just eight weeks. Mobile checkout capabilities eased long in-store lines, while unified inventory management, powered by RFID integration, supported seamless fulfilment across Instagram, Amazon, TikTok and Pacsun’s own channels. During peak holiday season, Pacsun achieved record breaking revenue and streamlined operations, with 40% of online orders being fulfilled via stores, optimising inventory proximity, labour capacity and shipping costs that reduced logistics expenses by 25%. Stores are now critical drivers of retail differentiation, with industry research showing
Aqara's Next-Generation Radiator Thermostat Delivers Smarter, Greener Heating to European Homes19.11.2025 10:00:00 EET | Press release
Aqara, a global leader and pioneer in IoT, today announces the availability of its Radiator Thermostat W600, first unveiled at IFA 2025. Boasting smart features like convenient temperature control, automated climate regulation, and seamless interoperability across Matter ecosystems via Thread/Zigbee protocol, the W600 transforms traditional radiators into intelligent, energy-efficient heating systems that not only enhance comfort but also help reduce energy bills. Designed for sustainable living, the Radiator Thermostat W600 delivers energy savings by minimizing heating in unoccupied areas. Instead of heating the whole home, users can schedule temperature adjustments for individual rooms, with up to 7 time periods per day, aligning with daily routines. Furthermore, these thermostatic radiator valves (TRV) can regulate indoor temperature based on environmental and behavioral triggers like room occupancy and geofencing, allowing for a heating system that adapts to real-time usage and occ
Frontgrade Gaisler and DELTATEC Enable Advanced Space Computing Across Multiple Missions19.11.2025 10:00:00 EET | Press release
Frontgrade™ Gaisler Technologies a leading provider of high-reliability electronic solutions for space and national security missions, and DELTATEC,a very high-level design house specialized in advanced technologies are pleased to celebrate their successful collaboration in delivering high-performance computing solutions for space applications, with the GR712RC dual-core microprocessor at the heart of several flight-proven systems. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251119011567/en/ The GR712RC, developed by Frontgrade Gaisler and based on the fault-tolerant LEON3FT architecture, has been integrated into multiple Data Handling System (DHS) units designed by DELTATEC. These include one Payload Data Handling Unit (PDHU) and two On-Board Computers (OBCs) currently operating aboard ESA’s eSAIL mission, launched into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) in September 2020. Moreover, DELTATEC recently delivered the Flight Model of the
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom