Andri Mahendra was a PhD student at the University of Sydney when, out of necessity, he built some compact equipment to test the photonic chips he dealt with in his research.
What he didn’t know was that equipment would become the basis for his future award-winning company.
“There’s colleagues that asked me to build the same thing, and I started to charge money from them, and it became a business, actually,” Mahendra says.
This venture grew into Nicslab, Mahendra’s Silicon Valley-based fabless chip company that specializes in photonic integrated circuits, which are microchips that leverage special components to send signals using photons rather than electrons for a host of benefits, including faster speeds and better energy efficiency.
Last month, Nicslab was named Company of the Year and won $1 million in state money at the Luminate NY optics, photonics, and imaging startup accelerator finals at Innovation Square, wrapping up the accelerator’s seventh year.
Nicslab was honored along with five other companies that went through the program: iLoF ($500,000), AI Optics ($200,000), VoxelSensors ($200,000), Photosynthetic ($100,000), and the Rochester-based SaferStreet Solutions ($10,000).
“This accelerator’s laser focus on advancing innovation and investment in New York’s world-renowned optics, photonics and imaging industries has firmly established the Finger Lakes as an OPI hub,” said Hope Knight, Empire State Development’s president, CEO and commissioner, in the announcement.
Luminate’s support was incredibly valuable for Nicslab, Mahendra says. It helped the startup organize business processes, document work instructions, obtain certifications, and develop an employee handbook and flesh out the human resources end of the business as Nicslab prepares to scale. Luminate also helped offer knowledge on crafting a more effective growth strategy.
The fact that the accelerator program is centered specifically on optics and photonics was key, especially when discussing hardware with mentors.
“They kind of understand what the timeline is, when we can have it, and what is the challenge, so we can discuss more and they can give some knowledge to us to address that challenge,” Mahendra says.
The $2.01 million in Luminate 2024 Finals investments are through the Finger Lakes Forward Upstate Revitalization Initiative and are made in exchange for each startup expanding their local operations.
Mahendra says Nicslab is setting up a Rochester office dedicated to hiring, research and development, and collaboration with other New York companies in the photonics ecosystem. It will partner in particular with Rochester’s AIM Photonics and Malta, New York’s GlobalFoundries. Mahendra says Nicslab doesn’t yet have concrete employment figures for its local operation.
The market for PICs is extremely high growth, driven in part by artificial intelligence, data center demands, and the projected expansion of 5G networking. IDTechEx projects the current nearly $10 billion market to expand by a factor of 2.4 by 2034.
But all of that is for the future. The first concrete step for Mahendra personally will be upgrading his visa to work here.
“We have a strong team overseas in Indonesia now that can deliver the product back and forth to the customers, but the U.S. operation is very important because we have a lot of customers in the country and in the Rochester area,” he says.
Justin O’Connor is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and a student at the University of Rochester. The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. Submissions to the Letters page should be sent to [email protected].