On September 30, 2026, in Rochester (New York), New York State Governor Kathy Hochul announced the winners of the ninth round of the Luminate NY accelerator. The title of Company of the Year and a USD 1 million investment were awarded to Gekko Photonics.
What the win entails
Luminate NY is a six-month accelerator for companies in the fields of optics, photonics, and imaging, supported by New York State through Empire State Development. The finals of the ninth round took place during the Frontiers in Optics + Laser Science conference organized by Optica. In this round, Luminate awarded a total of more than USD 2 million to six companies, of which USD 1 million went to Gekko Photonics.
This is a follow-on investment. The condition for receiving it is conducting operational activity in the Finger Lakes region for at least 18 months.
What is changing in Rochester
Since 2026, we have had an office in Rochester, in the NextCorps building at 260 E. Main Street. The Luminate investment will make it possible to expand the team there and implement Spectrally analyzers more quickly at plants in the USA.
“Rochester’s photonics expertise makes it a natural place for our company to grow. This funding will help us hire local engineering and customer support talent, work with regional suppliers, and bring our systems into production and deployment more quickly for U.S. customers.”
Robert Stachurski, CEO of Gekko Photonics
What we do
We design and manufacture Spectrally Raman analyzers that measure chemical composition directly in the production process (inline), without taking a sample to the laboratory. The measurement result is available in approximately 5 seconds. The analyzers are intended for process chemistry plants. Our headquarters is located in Wrocław.
Source: Luminate press release of September 30, 2026.
Consultation with an application engineer
If you are considering inline measurement at a plant in Europe or the USA, we invite you to a 30-minute consultation with an application engineer. An appointment can be booked via the contact form.