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
GIGABYTE Unveils “Future Landing” at COMPUTEX 2026 as Implementation Becomes Critical to Scaling AI12.5.2026 04:00:00 EEST | Press release
GIGABYTE Technology, a global leader in high-performance computing, is taking its most comprehensive end-to-end portfolio for AI infrastructure to COMPUTEX 2026 under the theme "Future Landing." As AI transitions from training into large-scale inference and real-world operation, GIGABYTE addresses the industry's most pressing challenge: not whether AI can be built, but how quickly and reliably it can be deployed, operated, and sustained at scale. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260505299592/en/ GIGABYTE Unveils “Future Landing” at COMPUTEX 2026 as Implementation Becomes Critical to Scaling AI At COMPUTEX, GIGABYTE organizes its showcase around three states that define the lifecycle of production AI infrastructure. Ready: integrated systems that have been fully built, simulated, validated, and prepared for deployment. Deployable: modular clusters engineered for rapid implementation across diverse environments.
INNIO Group Announces Filing of Registration Statement for Proposed Initial Public Offering11.5.2026 22:49:00 EEST | Press release
INNIO Group ("INNIO"), a leading global distributed energy solutions provider, today announces that it has publicly filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") relating to a proposed initial public offering of its common shares. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260511389675/en/ INNIO Group Announces Filing of Registration Statement for Proposed Initial Public Offering The timing of the offering, number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. INNIO has applied to list its common shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol "INIO." Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley are acting as joint lead book-running managers for the proposed offering. BofA Securities, Barclays and Citigroup are acting as book-running managers for the proposed offering. Baird, BNP Paribas
Only 7% of Companies Achieve Full Compliance as Global Expansion Increases Legal Complexity11.5.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
As businesses accelerate their global expansion in 2026, compliance fails to keep pace. In fact, only 7% of organizations report full compliance across their global entities, according to a new study by CSC, the leading provider of global business administration and compliance solutions. CSC surveyed 350 general counsel (GCs) and senior legal professionals across Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific to examine how their teams navigate international expansion, regulatory pressure, and the increasing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI).¹ The findings appear in CSC’s latest report, General Counsel Barometer 2026: From Complexity to Control. Most organizations report partial compliance, with over half (53%) estimating they are 50–75% compliant, and a further 35% placing themselves between 76%–99%. This leaves just 7% of organizations reporting full compliance across all global entities. GCs also report low confidence in addressing ongoing demands amid global expansion. More than tw
IFF Opens Vanilla Innovation Center in Madagascar11.5.2026 15:15:00 EEST | Press release
IFF (NYSE: IFF)—a global leader in flavors, fragrances, food ingredients, health & bioscience—today announced the opening of its Vanilla Innovation Center in Madagascar, reinforcing vanilla as a strategic and priority tonality for IFF and strengthening its ability to innovate at origin. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260508110162/en/ IFF's Vanilla Innovation Center in Madagascar “The opening of the center marks an important step in how we approach vanilla innovation,” said Adam Jańczuk, Ph.D., senior vice president, research, creation and design, Taste, IFF. “By strengthening our presence at origin, we connect science, creativity and sustainability more closely, responding to climate changes, safeguarding quality and creating value across the supply chain.” Located in Toamasina, Madagascar’s principal seaport, near vanilla growing areas and post‑harvest processing activities, the 650‑square‑meter center bring
ARIS Recognised as a Leader in Gartner ® Magic Quadrant™ for Process Intelligence Platforms, Believes This Reinforces Its Role in Enabling Enterprise AI at Scale11.5.2026 15:00:00 EEST | Press release
ARIS, the process context foundation platform for enterprise AI deployment, today announced its recognition as a Leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Process Intelligence Platforms. This is the fourth consecutive year that ARIS has been recognized as a Leader in the report and the company believes it underscores a continued commitment to innovation and growth as enterprises focus on turning AI ambition into measurable business outcomes. While technology has advanced rapidly, companies are struggling to operationalise AI across complex operating models. ARIS sees this recognition by Gartner as a reflection of its strength in delivering a single unified platform for process intelligence, providing the context layer on which G2000 organisations can successfully deploy and scale agentic AI. “AI is moving from experimentation to execution – but many enterprises are finding it difficult to scale,” said Guillaume Bacuvier, CEO of ARIS. “The reason is simple: AI lacks the context it need
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