Swave Photonics, QART Medical, and PhosPrint win big at 2023 SPIE Startup Challenge
1.2.2023 21:58:00 EET | Business Wire | Press release
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
Specright Launches Automated PPWR Declaration of Conformity Reporting22.7.2026 07:00:00 EEST | Press release
Specright™, the leader in AI-powered Specification Data Management™ (SDM) and modern Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), today announced a new Declaration of Conformity (DoC) reporting capability that automates a core requirement of the EU's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR). This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260721689027/en/ Specright's new capability automates PPWR Declaration of Conformity reporting ahead of the EU's August 2026 deadline. Companies placing packaged goods on the EU market must produce a signed DoC starting August 12, 2026, covering PPWR Articles 5 through 12 — substance restrictions, recyclability, recycled content, minimization, reusability, and labeling. For most brands, that documentation is scattered across suppliers and spreadsheets, turning routine filings into monthslong searches. "This launch builds on our EMEA investments this past year — from the PPWR-ready packaging in
MediaCo Appoints Brian Fisher as President21.7.2026 23:15:00 EEST | Press release
MediaCo Holding Inc. (Nasdaq: MDIA) today announced executive leadership appointments that align the Company's leadership structure to support its long-term growth strategy. Effective immediately, Brian Fisher has been appointed President of MediaCo. Albert Rodriguez will continue to serve as Chief Executive Officer, focusing on the Company's long-term strategy, growth initiatives and shareholder value, while Fisher assumes responsibility for leading the Company's day-to-day operations and execution. The Company also announced that Roberto Castro has been appointed Interim Chief Financial Officer and Interim Treasurer, overseeing the Finance organization while a search is conducted for a permanent Chief Financial Officer. "MediaCo has built tremendous momentum, and these leadership appointments position us well for our next phase of growth," said Albert Rodriguez, Chief Executive Officer of MediaCo. "Brian is the right leader to serve as President, and Roberto's financial expertise wil
Footprint Expands Into PE-Free Cups, Bringing a Proven, Recyclable and Home-Compostable Alternative to Plastic-Lined Paper Cups Into Production21.7.2026 19:00:00 EEST | Press release
Footprint, a materials science and technology company focused on eliminating single-use plastics, today announced it has acquired a recyclable, home-compostable, polyethylene (PE)-free hot and cold cup platform from Transcend Packaging, along with next-generation paper lid and straw solutions. Transcend Packaging is a European company focused on innovation in sustainable packaging solutions. Together, the cup, lid, and straw expand Footprint’s portfolio with a proven solution for the global cup market. Footprint will begin scaling its new PE-free solution through its Poland facility as the company expands across Europe, with North America to follow. As operations ramp in Poland, Footprint will work with Transcend through a manufacturing partnership to support customer continuity across Europe and meet growing demand for practical alternatives to plastic-lined cups. Transcend will manufacture product from its Wales facility for Footprint customers, while continuing to serve customers in
Spectro Cloud Launches PaletteAI Inference Launchpad to Reduce Enterprise Token Costs by up to 70%21.7.2026 17:00:00 EEST | Press release
Spectro Cloud, a leading provider of AI infrastructure management software, today launched PaletteAI Inference Launchpad, a turnkey, locally managed solution designed to help enterprises reduce token costs by as much as 70% and run AI inference closer to their data, applications and users. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260721597271/en/ The company also announced expanded PaletteAI support for AMD-powered AI infrastructure, including AMD GPUs, AMD GPU Operator, ROCm™ runtime, and the AMD enterprise AI reference stack — including AMD-optimized models from the AMD Inference Microservices (AIMs) catalog. Together, the announcements expand PaletteAI as one platform for production AI infrastructure across heterogeneous environments — giving enterprises, neoclouds and sovereign cloud providers a more flexible path to run governed AI infrastructure across NVIDIA and AMD silicon. AI infrastructure is entering the tok
RecVue Launches First AI Native Agentic Revenue Operating System21.7.2026 16:03:00 EEST | Press release
RecVue, the leader in billing and revenue management solutions, today announced the evolution of RecVue RevOS into the industry's first Agentic Revenue Operating System. In an architectural shift, the now-native agentic revenue management platform moves revenue operations beyond AI-assisted workflows to fully governed, autonomous execution with more than 50 purpose-built agents that work across contracts, invoices and payment data to predict risk, surface anomalies and escalate exceptions throughout the quote-to-cash lifecycle. Enterprise revenue operations have long suffered from a structural gap between billing systems that generate invoices and ERP systems that record transactions. Finance teams face tedious, manual reconciliation month after month, often resulting in delayed cash, billing errors that generate disputes, revenue leakage from ungoverned contract changes and close cycles that consume weeks. “Enterprise RevOps has always demanded both speed and precision, but traditiona
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