Public Event to Take Place in the Big Tent of Rochester International Jazz Festival (XRIJF)
OPI Innovation is a Key Part of “Finger Lakes Forward” – the Region’s Comprehensive Strategy
to Revitalize Communities and Grow the Economy
Rochester, NY: Luminate NY, a program of NextCorps (formerly High Tech Rochester) will invest $1 million in one of its ten inaugural cohort finalist companies in an exciting Demo Day event taking place on June 28, 2018. Light Tomorrow With Today, will be held in the Big Tent of the XRIJF and is open to the public but registration is required. During this free event, the community will get to see all ten finalists share information about their companies in the optics, photonics, imaging space and one finalist will receive an investment of $1 million in follow on funding from the Empire State Development’s Finger Lakes Forward initiative. An additional $1 million is also available to be awarded to the other finalist companies.
The ten finalist companies have been in residence at the state of the art Sibley Building receiving space, mentoring, and opportunities to take their startups to the next level. The competition attracted more than 100 applicants from around the world including teams from Canada, Switzerland, Ireland, Germany, Scotland, India, Russia, Qatar, Lebanon, Israel and the United States.
The 10 selected finalists include:
In the fields of Photonic Devices, Lasers, Materials and Display:
Arovia, Inc. – Houston, TX
Lumotune – Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Molecular Glasses, Inc. – Rochester, NY
In the fields of Spectroscopy and Medical Devices:
LighTopTech Corp. – Rochester, NY
Intelon Optics, Inc. – Boston, MA
In Augmented and Virtual Reality, Sensors, Instrumentation, Image Recognition:
Bounce Imaging – Boston, MA
DoubleHelix LLC – Boulder, CO
Think Biosolution – Dublin, Ireland
Positive Science – Rochester, NY
Tarsier Optics, Inc. – Baltimore, MD
Empire State Development President, CEO & Commissioner Howard Zemsky said, “While Luminate NY’s top prize will be announced on Demo Day, the Finger Lakes region is already a winner, thanks to our strategic investments that support this unique competition and Rochester’s ongoing innovation and leadership in optics, photonics and imaging.”
Luminate Managing Director, Sujatha Ramanujan is excited to be a sponsor of the XRIJF. “Luminate has been given a wonderful opportunity to hold Light Tomorrow With Today in the corporate hospitality big tent venue of the Jazz Fest, as part of our sponsorship. Rochester is known for both our incredible photonics ecosystem and our world class musical reputation. We are so pleased to have the opportunity to offer both to our entire community with Light Tomorrow With Today: our Demo Day event on June 28.”
In addition to the Luminate NY competition, New York State’s commitment to growing the OPI industry in the region includes Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposed $30 million Photonics Attraction Fund and funding to support the American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics (AIM Photonics) Testing, Assembly and Packaging (TAP) Facility in Rochester. First announced by Vice President Joe Biden and Governor Cuomo in July 2015, AIM Photonics will help secure the nation’s and region’s leadership in emerging technology research, development, and manufacturing. The optics, photonics, and imaging industries have been identified as one of the three industry clusters recognized as key to enabling “Finger Lakes Forward,” the region’s successful Upstate Revitalization Initiative plan, a comprehensive strategy to grow the economy.
