metamaterials
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Beyond Reach Labs
Beyond Reach Labs is a New York space-hardware startup building ultra-light deployable solar arrays that pack down to the size of a dining table and unfold to the size of a football field in orbit, delivering roughly 10x more usable power per launch without adding mass or volume. Founded by former NASA researcher Mitchell Fogelson and ex-SpaceX parachute lead Pele Collins, the company grew out of NASA-funded research into kilometer-scale space structures and is targeting a 2027 in-space flight demonstration.
Neurophos
Neurophos is an Austin-based photonics startup building an Optical Processing Unit (OPU) that uses light instead of electrons to run AI inference. Spun out of Duke University and the Metacept incubator, the company packs more than a million micron-scale metamaterial optical modulators - roughly 10,000x smaller than conventional photonic elements - onto a single chip to perform the matrix-vector multiplication at the heart of large AI models. It positions the OPU as an energy-efficient, drop-in alternative to GPUs for data-center inference, and raised a $110M Series A led by Gates Frontier in January 2026.
OPT Industries
OPT Industries is an MIT-spun materials foundry in Medford, Massachusetts that built the world's first roll-to-roll 3D printing platform, RAMP. By pairing computational design software with continuous additive manufacturing, OPT prints micron-precise materials at unlimited length and high volume - producing everything from the InstaSwab COVID-19 nasal swab to flockless cosmetic applicators and false eyelashes. The pitch is simple: one process, endless possibilities.