Where is Luminate's headquarters located?

Luminate's headquarters is located in Rochester (United States).

How big is Luminate's investment team?

Luminate has a team of 19, including 4 partners.

How many companies has Luminate invested in?

Luminate has invested in 54 companies, including Scout Space & Swave.

Which companies has Luminate invested in lately?

Pensievision & Swave are the latest investments by Luminate.

How many exits has Luminate been involved in?

Luminate's portfolio has seen 2 acquisitions.

Luminate - 2026 Investor Profile, Portfolio, Team & Investment Trends

Luminate, an accelerator and incubator program founded in 2017, is based in Rochester, United States. With a presence in 14 countries, it has supported around 54 startups in sectors like High Tech, HealthTech. As of Sep 2026, Luminate has witnessed 2 portfolio exits. Most notable companies in its portfolio include Scout Space, Swave and Stratio. The program is backed by a team of 19 people who primarily support Seed startups based in United States. Its latest investment was a $1M Grant (prize money) round in Pensievision on Oct 22, 2025.

Key Metrics

Founded Year

2017

Location

Rochester, United States

Portfolio Companies

Scout Space, Swave & 52 more

Sectors of Investment

High Tech, HealthTech & 19 more

Stages of Investment

Seed, Grant (prize money) & 1 more

Locations of Investment

United States, Canada & 12 more

View Luminate's full profile

Luminate has a portfolio of 54 companies. Their most notable investments are in Custom Surgical and QD Solar.Their portfolio spans across United States, Canada, India and 11 more locations. They have invested in High Tech, HealthTech, Life Sciences and 18 other sectors, across stages such as Seed, Grant (prize money) and 1 more. Here is the list of top investments by Luminate:

1. Scout Space

Developer of sensor systems, autonomy software, and data platforms for space. The company builds electro-optical and infrared sensors designed for missions in low Earth orbit, geosynchronous orbit, and beyond. It offers mission autonomy software enabling spacecraft to perform complex operations. Custom compute configurations for various missions and mission design modeling are also provided.

Key facts about Scout Space

Founded Year: 2019
Location: Reston (United States)
Stage: Series A
Total Funding till date: $29M
Employee Count: 73 as on Jul 31, 2026
Investors: Washington Harbour Partners, Fusion Fund and 11 Others
Latest Funding Round: Series A, Jun 22, 2026, $*****
Highlight: Editors' Pick

2. Swave

Provider of XR technology for the metaverse. Its solution projects holographic images and does not require XR headsets or other display hardware. It is applicable to high-resolution displays for metaverse, body motion tracking, and wearable devices.

Key facts about Swave

Founded Year: 2022
Location: Leuven (Belgium)
Stage: Series A
Total Funding till date: $45.5M
Employee Count: 47 as on Jul 31, 2026
Investors: Acequia Capital, IAG Capital Partners and 10 Others
Latest Funding Round: Series A, Jun 25, 2025, $*****
Highlight: Editors' Pick

3. Stratio

Stratio is developer short wave infrared imaging sensors. SWIR is sensitive to night sky radiance, making the sensors ideal for night vision applications in addition to capturing subsurface images and seeing through fog and smoke. Company's founding team is comprised of Stanford Electrical Engineering PhDs. Industry applications are food inspection, hyperspectral imaging, industrial sorting, etc. The company's first product is LinkSquare, an affordable, portable VIS/NIR spectrometer that works with smartphones to quickly identify and analyze objects. LinkSquare's initial application is medication identification, but it is a versatile tool with a role to play in supply chain management, process spectroscopy, and a host of other applications. The company is also developing an Infrared sensor that has applications like food safety inspection, trace explosives detection, and health monitoring. The company was awarded U.S. National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research grants in 2014 and 2015, and has also received Korean R&D grants.

Key facts about Stratio

Founded Year: 2013
Location: San Jose (United States)
Stage: Seed
Total Funding till date: $1.1M
Employee Count: 22 as on Jul 31, 2026
Investors: Alchemist Accelerator, Kakao Ventures and 4 Others
Latest Funding Round: Seed, Mar 23, 2022, $*****

4. LightSpeed Photonics

Provider of optical interconnect solutions for data centers and edge computing applications. Offers advanced optical interconnects that integrate high-performance processors with high data rate optics, enabling scalable and high-bandwidth applications. Its mission is to enhance data processing capabilities in data centers and edge compute environments. Their innovative optoelectronics solutions address pressing bandwidth problems across various industries, promoting efficient data transmission and processing.

Key facts about LightSpeed Photonics

Founded Year: 2021
Location: Singapore (Singapore)
Annual Revenue: $0 - $1M as on Dec 31, 2024
Valuation: $*****
Stage: Seed
Total Funding till date: $6.75M
Employee Count: 29 as on Jul 31, 2026
Investors: YourNest, Java Capital and 12 Others
Latest Funding Round: Seed, Nov 26, 2025, $*****
Highlight: Editors' Pick

5. Custom Surgical

Developer of hardware and software tools for eye care diagnostics. The systems integrate digital imaging technology and artificial intelligence algorithms to assist clinicians in examining ocular health. These tools provide image capturing capabilities and analytical support for identifying conditions during medical examinations.

Key facts about Custom Surgical

Founded Year: 2018
Location: Munich (Germany)
Stage: Seed
Total Funding till date: $4.74M
Employee Count: 28 as on Jul 31, 2026
Investors: Ventech, Luminate and 2 Others
Latest Funding Round: Seed, Feb 19, 2026, $*****

View the full list of portfolio companies

Luminate has invested in 54 companies over the last 8 years, with an average of 2 new investments annually in the last 5 years. In 2025, it made 2 investments. Its most recent first time investment was in Pensievision and most recent follow-on round was in Swave.

Here are Luminate's Year-on-Year Investment Trends:

Year	No. of Investments
Year	1^st Round	Follow-on	Total
2026 (YTD)	0	0	0
2025	1	1	2
2024	1	0	1
2023	1	2	3
2022	9	2	11
2021	10	4	14
2020	3	0	3
2019	3	1	4
2018	6	1	7

View all investments by Luminate

Luminate has made 25 investments in Seed stage with an average round size of $239K, 5 investments in Grant (prize money) stage with an average round size of $552K and 4 investments in Series A stage with an average round size of $450K.

Here are Luminate's investments by stage:

Stage of entry	No. of Investments
Seed	25
Grant (prize money)	5
Series A	4

Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments

View all investments by Luminate

Luminate has a diverse portfolio, with companies operating in the High Tech, Semiconductors, Enterprise Applications, Life Sciences and HealthTech. Notably, it has invested in 40 Tech companies, 37 Enterprise (B2B) companies, 28 Tech hardware companies and at least 21 companies focusing on Software.

Here are Luminate's investments by sector:

Sector	No. of Investments
High Tech	15
Semiconductors	11
Enterprise Applications	10
Life Sciences	7
HealthTech	6
Others	43

Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments

View all investments by Luminate

Luminate has made most investments in United States (18), followed by Canada where it has made 3 investments.

Here are Luminate's investments by geography:

Country	No. of Investments
United States	18
Canada	3
Germany	3
India	2
Spain	2
Others	7

Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments

View all investments by Luminate

Luminate has not made any investment in 2026 so far.

Here are the most recent investments by Luminate:

Filter this list

Date	Company	Location	Round Details	Round Amount	Co-Investors
Oct 22, 2025	Pensievision	United States	Grant (prize money)	7111	-
Jan 06, 2025	Swave	Belgium	Series A	3235	imec.xpand [+7]
Mar 28, 2024	cureVision	Germany	Seed	5407	-
Jun 22, 2023	Swave	Belgium	Seed	4491	Acequia Capital [+3]
Apr 25, 2023	PreAct Tech	United States	Series B	5368	I Squared [+2]

See more recent investments made by Luminate

2 companies from Luminate's portfolio have been acquired. The most recent acquisition was QD Solar in Jun 2024 by SunDensity for $*****.

Here are Luminate's portfolio companies that got acquired most recently:

Filter this list

Company	Acquisition Date	First Invested on	First Round of Investment	Round Size
QD Solar	Jun 18, 2024	Mar 23, 2022	Series A	6292
Neurescence	Nov 14, 2022	-	-	7319

View all acquired companies in Luminate's portfolio

Luminate has a team of 19 members including 4 Partners and 2 Principals located in United States. Luminate's team does not sit on the board of any company as of now.

Here is a list of top team members in Luminate:

Name	Designation	Location	Board Memberships	Contact Details
Sujatha Ramanujan	Partner	Rochester	-	-
Don Golini	Partner	Boston	-	-
Veronica LoCurcio	Partner	-	-	1 Email
Natalie Antal	Partner	Rochester	-	-
Damon Diehl	Principal	Rochester	-	1 Email
Kate Leonard	Principal	Rochester	-	-

View team details of Luminate

Over the past 8 years, 83 investors have co-invested in Luminate's portfolio companies. This includes funds and angels.

Invested before Luminate: National Science Foundation, HHS and 30 others have invested in rounds before Luminate. There are 5 companies where National Science Foundation has invested before Luminate and 3 companies where HHS has invested before Luminate.
Top Co-investors of Luminate: 5 investors entered a company along with Luminate. These include investors like Acequia Capital (1 company).
Invested after Luminate: A total of 46 investors have invested in Luminate's portfolio after their investments. Top Investors include EIC Fund (2 companies) and State Farm (2 companies).