$1.25M Awarded to Lightfinder from NSF SBIR Phase II Grant

Lightfinder's Diana Mojahed will be speaking at ficonTEC's Expert Seminar in Málaga at ECOC 2026 | 52nd European Conference on Optical Communication. There is a great lineup planned, tackling a critical question in our industry: What it takes to scale silicon photonics from prototype to volume production. ECOC 2026 is taking place in Málaga, Spain on September 20 - 24 September, 2026. Learn more about the event here.

We're thrilled to announce that Lightfinder has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) SBIR Phase II grant — $1.25M to accelerate our chip-scale spectrometer technology toward market. Huge thanks to our Phase II Program Manager, Ben Schrag, for his support. And to Samir Iqbal, our Phase I Program Manager, for believing in this technology — and in us — from the very start. We're grateful for NSF's continued partnership as we bring silicon photonics-sensing to real-wo

In May, Diana Mojahed (Lightfinder, Cohort 2025) pitched her innovation to a multi-trillion-dollar market cap audience at the 2026 Lam Capital Venture Competition—and won. Now, with crucial new exposure, validation, and funding, she is ready to “hire, accelerate, and move faster.” Lightfinder is built on a breakthrough from the MIT lab where Mojahed did her postdoctoral training: a laboratory-grade spectrometer that fits on a silicon chip. The next-generation photonics compa