# Eldrick Millares

> Eldrick Millares is the co-founder and co-CEO of Illuminant Surgical, a Los Angeles deep-tech company building Skylight, the first real-time anatomical projection system. It paints a patient's internal anatomy directly onto their skin so surgeons get a kind of live X-ray vision, no headset required. A Stanford-trained electrical engineer who immigrated from the Philippines to West Virginia, he built sensing systems at Apple and a lidar startup before teaming up with Stanford classmate Dr. James Hu. The pair went through Y Combinator, were named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in Healthcare, and raised an $8.4M seed round in 2026.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & Co-CEO at Illuminant Surgical
- **Organizations:** Illuminant Surgical, Apple, Red Leader Tech, Y Combinator (S22)
- **From:** Philippines
- **Nationality:** Filipino-American
- **Education:** M.S. Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, B.S. Electrical Engineering, Stanford University
- **Known for:** Co-founded Illuminant Surgical and built Skylight, described as the first real-time anatomical projection system, Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in Healthcare (with co-founders), Led Illuminant into Y Combinator (Summer 2022)

## Career timeline

- **early career** — Immigrated from the Philippines to West Virginia
- **Stanford** — Earned B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering; worked on microfluidics research and digital design
- **post-Stanford** — Built advanced sensing systems and chip design at Apple
- **startup** — Led hardware-software work at lidar startup Red Leader Tech
- **2021** — Co-founded Illuminant Surgical with Stanford classmate Dr. James Hu
- **2022** — Illuminant joined Y Combinator (Summer 2022 batch)
- **2025** — Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in Healthcare with co-founders; exhibited at SIGGRAPH 2025
- **2026** — Raised $8.4M seed round led by Wing 2 Wing Ventures; opened new Nexus headquarters

## Achievements

- Co-founded Illuminant Surgical and built Skylight, described as the first real-time anatomical projection system
- Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in Healthcare (with co-founders)
- Led Illuminant into Y Combinator (Summer 2022)
- Raised $8.4M seed round in 2026 (Wing 2 Wing Ventures, plus NSF, National Cancer Institute, National Institute on Aging grants, Elderberry Ventures, Soma Capital)
- Built advanced sensing and chip-design systems at Apple
- Achieved sub-2mm projection accuracy for real-time anatomical mapping

## Latest updates

- **2026-06** — Illuminant Surgical cut the ribbon on its new Nexus headquarters.
- **2026-04** — Announced an $8.4M seed round led by Wing 2 Wing Ventures, roughly half from federal research grants.
- **2026-02** — Featured in The Lens Magazine by LSI as part of the Alumni Innovator Spotlight.
- **2025-12** — Co-founders honored in Forbes 30 Under 30 in Healthcare.

## Links

- Website: https://illuminant.ai
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eldrickm/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMUnoM5FsnM
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DJpS_2wy_Xc/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/eldrick-millares
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-24