Luminate Finals 2026

Luminate brings visionary companies from around the world to Rochester to turn advanced optics, photonics, imaging, and laser technologies into real businesses. The 10 startup teams of cohort 9 are graduating from the accelerator with sharper go-to-market strategies and deeper connections to our community. Luminate Finals 2026 is your front‑row seat to the next chapter of their journey—and the story we’re writing together as a region.

Luminate Finals is sponsored by Optica as part of Frontiers in Optics + Laser Science (FiO LS), the premier technical conference for researchers, engineers, and industry leaders in optics, photonics, and imaging. It’s the perfect venue to connect with Rochester's vibrant innovation ecosystem and feel the pulse of progress.

• See the technologies shaping tomorrow.
  The teams of cohort 9 are tackling high‑stakes challenges in healthcare, defense, manufacturing, quantum, and beyond.
• Go inside the STELLAR initiative.
  Join a focused conversation on the new NSF‑backed laser innovation hub strengthening Rochester's position as a national center for laser research, commercialization, and advanced manufacturing.
• Vote live for your favorite team.
  Help a standout startup win this year's Audience Choice Award and $10,000.
• Watch the big checks get awarded.
  Up to $2 million in follow‑on funding will be distributed, including a $1 million investment for Company of the Year.

See for yourself how the next wave of startups is moving the future forward, one breakthrough at a time.

Luminate Finals 2026 is a free, hybrid event open to the general public and attendees of FiO LS. Doors open for in-person attendees at 11:30 AM to grab lunch and a seat. The program kicks off at 12:00 PM.

Click through to tickets to select in-person or virtual attendance.

Thank you to Optica for sponsoring Luminate Finals 2026 as part of its Frontiers in Optics + Laser Science (FiO LS) conference.

— Engineering high-powered, mode-locked pulsed lasers you can hold in the palm of your hand

— Shrinking high-performance Ti:sapphire lasers to chip scale for quantum technologies

— Transforming labor assessment with objective, AI-powered imaging

— Making engineered diamond practical for chips, optics, and AI infrastructure

— Bringing laboratory-grade chemical insight directly to the production line

— Restoring natural peripheral awareness for remote and simulated environments

— Modernizing optical manufacturing for thinner, lighter smart optics

— Enabling laser inspection of features buried inside advanced semiconductor packages

— Advancing bioprocess monitoring with real-time molecular insight

— Reimagining augmented reality displays with wavemixing physics