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ICFO launchpad project among 10 finalists in the 2022 SPIE Startup Challenge

LightCare to compete for award at Photonics West in January

December 23, 2021

ICFO is proactive in fostering entrepreneurial activities and spin-off creation, encouraging ICFOnians to take their new ideas and discoveries out of the lab and into society. Innovative ideas are provided a space and support structure to develop into new technology spin-offs in the KTT Launchpad. In addition, ICFO participates in incubator activities and seeks to attract venture capital investment.

LightCare, a project currently incubating in the KTT Launchpad, has been selected as a finalist to compete in the SPIE Startup Challenge. The technology that developed in the Medical Optics group at ICFO ultimately aims to bring to market a smart, effective, and safe sports-tech platform to guide training with muscle physiology. In this annual entrepreneurial pitch competition for new businesses that utilize optics and photonics to create innovative products, applications, and technologies, ten early-stage start-up companies from six countries will compete for a cash prize. Past Startup Challenge winners that have gone on to wider commercial success include Include Cellino BiotechDouble Helix OpticsPhotoniCareC. Light TechnologiesCircle Optics, and In A Blink.

The SPIE Startup Challenge is supported by Founding Partner Jenoptik, Lead Sponsors MKS Instruments, Hamamatsu, and Thorlabs, and Strategic Partners Aspire360 and NextCorps’ Luminate. Judges include venture capitalists and business-development experts who vet the applicants for their business case, financial case, and competitive advantages. Transformational innovations this year include technologies in quantum computing, semiconductors, additive manufacturing, medical imaging, and display technology.

The ten 2022 SPIE Startup Challenge finalists are:

  • Ascend Manufacturing, with a novel 3D printing technology
  • LightCare, with a smart, effective, and safe medical optics technology for muscle-training physiology
  • Luminess, with Luminess Detectors, a versatile platform for safer, more sensitive, and more reliable X-ray medical imaging
  • Modendo Inc. , with ultrathin endomicroscopes that provide high-resolution optical imaging and photo-stimulation for currently inaccessible brain regions
  • Nicslab, with XDAC, a multichannel power driver that controls the light in PICs
  • ORCA Computing, using room temperature and photonic quantum-computing systems to solve complex machine-learning workloads
  • Phaseform, with a new approach to adaptive optics
  • Quantopticon, with simulation software for quantum photonic hardware manufacturers who want to build optimized quantum photonic devices
  • Specto Photonics, with next-generation miniaturized spectrometers to measure fundamental mechanical properties for life sciences and sensing applications
  • VitreaLab, with a laser-lit chip for the 2D and 3D display market


The pitches will take place Tuesday, 25 January on the main exhibit stage of Photonics West in the Moscone Center. Access to this venue is free with an “exhibit only” registration to Photonics West.

Best of luck to the LightCare team as they present their promising technology.