# Luminate

> Luminate is a VC fund in Rochester backing Health Care and Manufacturing. See 113 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Rochester, United States
- Total investments: 113
- Last investment: Aug 2026
- Lead investor: 49%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/luminateoptics/
- X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/LuminateROC
- Website: https://luminate.org/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LuminateAccelerator/

Luminate is a new startup accelerator focused on advancing next generation optics, photonics, and imaging enabled companies. The company seeks visionary entrepreneurs who are solving difficult problems in augmented and virtual reality, autonomous vehicles, machine vision, biophotonics, and other fields. Funded by New York State, and based in theoptics and imaging capital of the world – Rochester, NY.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Luminate. Shizune tracks 3 team members at Luminate. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/luminate-cd00?utm_source=investor_profile

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Health Care | 19 | 17% |
| Manufacturing | 16 | 14% |
| Medical Device | 14 | 12% |
| Software | 11 | 10% |
| Information Technology | 10 | 9% |

94 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 39 | 35% |
| Pre-Seed | 25 | 22% |
| Grant | 10 | 9% |
| Funding Round | 10 | 9% |
| Non-equity Assistance | 7 | 6% |

9 stages tracked in total.

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 42 | 37% |
| Canada | 5 | 4% |
| Germany | 5 | 4% |
| United Kingdom | 4 | 4% |
| Spain | 2 | 2% |

21 countries tracked in total.

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Holly Barrett | Marketing Director | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/holly-barrett |
| Gary Nothhard | Optical Metrology Technician | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/gary-nothhard |
| Sujatha Ramanujan | Managing Director & Founder | 40 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sujatha-ramanujan |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| SeeTrue Technologies | SeeTrue Technologies creates world’s most-advanced customizable and robust eye-tracking solutions | $2.5M | Seed | Aug 05, 2026 |  |
| Pensievision | Pensievision is developing innovative three-dimensional (3D) medical imaging technologies for point of care, early-stage detection and analysis of cervical cancers. Our technology is favorable over other screening methods for ease of use, accessibility, and cost. Most important, the screening and diagnostics do not require lab results andadditional visits to the clinic. | $1M | Grant | Oct 22, 2025 |  |
| SNOChip | SNOChip manufactures new optical components and sensors using metasurface technology. | $200K | Grant | Oct 22, 2025 |  |
| amPICQ Private Limited | Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs), photonic hardware product | $100K | Seed | Mar 27, 2025 |  |
| amPICQ Private Limited | Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs), photonic hardware product | $100K | Pre-Seed | Mar 27, 2025 |  |
| Wyse Light | Wyse Light specializes in the development of high-precision optical measurement instruments. | $100K | Pre-Seed | Mar 27, 2025 |  |
| Metahelios | Metahelios prides itself on providing completely new imaging technologies for several industries through a nanotechnological approach. We enhance imaging capabilities by using ultra-thin nanostructured materials, namely metasurfaces. Our first product features the first spectropolarimetric SPAD array camera. | $100K | Pre-Seed | Mar 27, 2025 |  |
| LirOptic | LirOptic is a company that develops solid-state, shape-shifting, tunable optical lens technology. | $100K | Pre-Seed | Mar 27, 2025 |  |
| Iridesense | IRIDESENSE provides a novel 3D multispectral LiDAR technology for robust object and material identification. This solution utilizes the Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR) band to analyze spectral signatures, enabling accurate material differentiation at significant distances (up to 300 meters) and under varying lighting conditions, without the need forcalibration. This technology offers significant potential for resource optimization and carbon footprint reduction in various industries, including agriculture, mining, and waste management. | $100K | Pre-Seed | Mar 27, 2025 |  |
| VanaM | VanaM Inc. is a startup that develops and manufactures next-generation semiconductor thin films that have not yet been commercialized, and has innovative source technology and core IP for semiconductor thin film growth. Based on this, we are directly developing new material thin films required in deep-tech fields such as AI semiconductors, Powerelectronics, and Quantum computing, and are pioneering new markets through collaborations with various research institutes and industrial companies. Currently, we are building an urban microfoundry based on an eco-friendly thin-film deposition process in the center of Seoul and making our first project, energy-responsive semiconductor thin films. | $100K | Seed | Mar 27, 2025 |  |

10 of 113 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Rockstart](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/rockstart-accelerator) — VC Fund, 7 deals together
- [SOSV](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sosv) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [imec.xpand](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/imec-xpand) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [PSV](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/preseed-innovation) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [State Farm Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/state-farm-ventures) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [Excell Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/excell-partners) — VC Fund, 3 deals together

## Similar investors

### Similar stage
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund
- [Right Side Capital Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/right-side-capital-management) — VC Fund

## FAQ

### What does Luminate invest in?

Luminate invests primarily in Health Care, Manufacturing and Medical Device startups, most often at Seed and Pre-Seed stage. Most of the 113 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### How do I contact Luminate?

Public channels for Luminate include LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.

### Who are the partners at Luminate?

The team at Luminate includes Holly Barrett (Marketing Director), Gary Nothhard (Optical Metrology Technician) and Sujatha Ramanujan (Managing Director & Founder). The Team section lists each member with their title, investment count and links.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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