SPIE names 2025 Startup Challenge winners
On January 28th at a ceremony held during SPIE Photonics West 2025, Max-IR Labs was announced the winner of the $10,000 top prize at the 15th annual SPIE Startup Challenge, a pitch competition that showcases new optics- and photonics-based businesses, products, and technologies to address critical needs. Max-IR Labs' AquaCarbon Monitor is set to facilitate carbon credits with precise CO2 monitoring in water systems.
Photosynthetic B.V. and its Volumetric Micro-Lithography product which enables the rapid production of complex 3D devices with submicron features, received $5,000 for second place. OptiCardio came in third, winning $2,500 with their spectroscopy-enabled device for real-time guidance to reduce the recurrence rate of ablation procedures for atrial fibrillation.
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 annual SPIE Startup Challenge provides a platform for optics and photonics startups that are creating novel 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.
