Nicslab Receives $1 Million in Investment; Five Additional Companies Secure Follow-on Investments

Applications Now Being Accepted for Round Eight of the Optics, Photonics, and Imaging Competition until January 10, 2025

NYS Investment Complements "Finger Lakes Forward" – the Region's Robust Strategy to Revitalize Communities and Grow the Economy

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Sept. 27, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Empire State Development (ESD) today announced Nicslab as the winner of Round Seven of the Luminate NY optics, photonics, and imaging startup accelerator competition. The Silicon Valley, Calif. based Nicslab received the "Company of the Year" Award at Luminate Finals 2024, which was held live at Innovation Square in downtown Rochester, and online on Sept. 26. The company will receive $1 million in investment from New York State through the Finger Lakes Forward Upstate Revitalization Initiative. Nicslab will use the follow-on funding to manufacture and package its next generation of electronics and photonics integrated circuits at AIM Photonics facilities in New York. Luminate NY, which is administered by NextCorps, is the world's largest business accelerator for emerging companies that have technologies enabled by optics, photonics, and imaging (OPI). The Finals event marks the completion of the seventh year of the cohort-based program, which now has over 70 companies in its portfolio. As required by the award, all winners of the competition will commit to establishing operations in the region for at least the next 18 months.

Empire State Development President, CEO and Commissioner Hope Knight, said, “Congratulations to all of the talented teams who took part in the latest round of the Luminate NY competition. This accelerator’s laser focus on advancing innovation and investment in New York's world-renowned optics, photonics, and imaging industries has firmly established the Finger Lakes as an OPI hub. We are incredibly excited to see what is next for these forward-thinking companies, especially the high-wattage talent and economic energy they will bring to the region.”

Nicslab is a fabless chip company developing integrated circuits for future optical solutions, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), data centers, autonomous vehicle, space, and semiconductor applications. Their chip-scale electronic photonic solution combines the power supply, signal processor, sensors, and control into one compact solution to offer unparalleled accuracy, up to 1,000 more channels, and at 3x the cost efficiency. 

Andri Mahendra, Founder & CEO, Nicslab said, “Nicslab is setting up an office in Rochester to support our U.S. operations, including hiring, R&D, and collaboration with key chip manufacturers. By partnering with AIM Photonics, Global Foundries, and other New York State vendors, we aim to drive the development of our next-generation chips.”

United Kingdom and Portugal based iLoF was awarded the Outstanding Graduate Award and $500,000 in follow-on investment. The company is pioneering a breakthrough photonics platform to accelerate the future of personalized drug discovery and development.

There was a two-way tie for the Distinguished Graduate Award, with each company receiving $200,000 in follow-on funding. New York City based AI Optics is implementing handheld imaging technology that integrates AI to provide a new standard of care for disease screening. VoxelSensors from Brussels, Belgium, is creating PERCEPT, a fast, low-power, sensing module for wearable devices designed to seamlessly integrate AI with sensor data to provide real-time contextual analysis of users’ attention.

Honorable Achievement and $100,000 went to Photosynthetic, an Amsterdam based startup that has created a new manufacturing method, which enables complex 3D geometries to be produced at mass production speeds, while maintaining sub-micron feature sizes.

Event attendees voted Rochester, NY based SaferStreet Solutions as the Audience Choice winner for its traffic safety devices that target unsafe driving behavior. The award provides $10,000.

The investments were presented after a panel of judges from the OPI industry and venture capitalist community scored the participating companies based on their business pitches and due diligence completed during the six-month accelerator program.

Since its inception, Luminate NY has invested $18.6 million in more than 70 startups. The companies in the portfolio are currently valued at more than $675 million. In addition to providing an estimated 1.5 to 2 times return on investment, many of the companies are establishing U.S. operations or some aspect of research and manufacturing in the Rochester region, which has resulted in 164 jobs. Last year's Company of the Year winner, Oculi, moved its headquarters to Rochester, NY. The company was recently named by EE Times in its Silicon 100: Startups Worth Watching in 2024.

Luminate NY Managing Director Dr. Sujatha Ramanujan said, “Novel technologies require novel support. Luminate is specifically designed to help early-stage companies complete the due diligence necessary to improve their investment proposition and their path to technology commercialization. We are grateful to Governor Hochul for the program's continuation, which is helping us connect the best emerging companies from around the world to the benchmark OPI resources in our region."

The Luminate NY accelerator is based in Rochester and selects 10 to 12 promising companies each year to participate in its hybrid, six-month program. During this time, companies are provided with more than 200 hours of instruction, along with the resources to advance their technologies and businesses. Applications are now being accepted for Round Eight through January 10, 2025. Teams will receive $100,000 in funding upon program start in April 2025, with the expectation that $50,000 will be used to engage resources in the Finger Lakes region. Teams are expected to come to Rochester for select weeks and to also participate virtually during their time in the accelerator. Startups interested in applying to Luminate can register for an upcoming virtual informational session here.

The Finger Lakes Region is home to an incredibly rich ecosystem for forward-thinking entrepreneurs who are looking to grow their business. Rochester offers the American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics’ Test, Assembly, and Packaging facility at Eastman Business Park, the University of Rochester’s Institute of Optics, the Rochester Institute of Technology, and more than 150 local OPI companies which employ more than 17,000 employees who are building on the region’s legacy as a global imaging leader.

Assemblymember Harry Bronson, Assembly Chair of Labor, said, “The Luminate NY competition continues to be a hub that brings innovation and entrepreneurship from around the globe right here to Rochester. I offer my congratulations to the seventh-round winners for their ingenuity and creativity, and thank Nicslab for their decision to invest their follow-on funding to relocate manufacturing and packaging of their next generation of electronics and photonics integrated circuits to New York. I hope we will continue to see these groundbreaking companies make NYS their home.”

Monroe County Executive Adam Bello, said, “Monroe County is a hub for high-tech company growth in fields like optics, photonics and imaging. These developing industries are bolstered by NextCorps, a nationally recognized hub for innovation and economic development located in the heart of Downtown Rochester. My thanks to NextCorps for hosting the 2024 Luminate NY Accelerator Competition, bringing together bright minds, big ideas and boundless potential. Congratulations to all the startups who participated and especially to this year’s winner Nicslab. All across New York State Governor Kathy Hochul has demonstrated her commitment to the development of high-tech business and industry, and that’s especially true in Monroe County. We are grateful for her leadership and investment in the economy of innovation.”

Rochester Mayor Malik D. Evans, said, “Rochester is proud to host the Luminate finals each year because we are home to some of the best and brightest minds in the field of optics and photonics,” said Rochester Malik D. Evans. “I would like to thank NextCorps and Empire State Development for their outstanding work helping startup companies and for their commitment to growing Rochester’s innovation economy. I send our most sincere congratulations and best wishes to this year’s finalists as they lead us into a new and brighter future.”

For additional information about Luminate NY, visit: https://luminate.org/.

For additional information about NextCorps, visit: https://nextcorps.org/.

Accelerating Finger Lakes Forward 
Today’s announcement complements “Finger Lakes Forward,” the region’s comprehensive strategy to generate robust economic growth and community development. The regionally designed plan focuses on investing in key industries including photonics, agriculture‎ and food production, and advanced manufacturing. More information is available here.

About Empire State Development
Empire State Development is New York's chief economic development agency, and promotes business growth, job creation, and greater economic opportunity throughout the state. With offices in each of the state's 10 regions, ESD oversees the Regional Economic Development Councils, supports broadband equity through the ConnectALL office, and is growing the workforce of tomorrow through the Office of Strategic Workforce Development. The agency engages with emerging and next generation industries like clean energy and semiconductor manufacturing looking to grow in New York State, operates a network of assistance centers to help small businesses grow and succeed, and promotes the state's world class tourism destinations through I LOVE NY. For more information, please visit esd.ny.gov, and connect with ESD on LinkedIn, Facebook and X.

Contact:
Shari Voorhees-Vincent | Shari.Voorhees-Vincent@esd.ny.gov | (585) 399-7055
Press Office | pressoffice@esd.ny.gov | (800) 260-7313
Shannon Wojcik | Luminate | shannon@rkgcomms.com | (585) 831-6267

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ae7b0598-8bf7-40c2-8c8b-ffe0c23b8d3f