US-Japan Workshop Participants

AeroShield Materials

Brightlight Photonics

Brightlight Photonics develops on-chip lasers and amplifiers made from titanium-doped thin-film sapphire and custom photonic solutions in the visible and ultraviolet, from bare chips to fiber-interfaced devices.

CavilinQ

CavilinQ provides the most economical, clean, and continuous path to next-generation fault-tolerant quantum computers and quantum data centers.

ESTAT Actuation

ESTAT Actuation builds ESTAT clutches are 10x lighter, 10x more compact, and 1000x more efficient than conventional clutches. ESTAT clutches use electroadhesion to “glue” and “unglue” surfaces, enabling new actuator designs for mobile robots, logistics robots, wearable robots and manufacturing systems.

FlowCellutions

FlowCellutions builds state-of-health diagnostics, proprietary sensing, and predictive maintenance software for grid-scale/flow batteries to extend battery life, prevent critical-infrastructure outages, and reduce O&M/OPEX for battery manufacturers, data centers, hospitals, and grid operators.

Gallox Semiconductors

Gallox Semiconductors develops ultrawide bandgap gallium oxide (Ga2O3) transistors and diodes that eliminate that inefficiency, enable more powerful electronics circuitry, and reduce a system’s size, weight, and engineering complexity with target applications including data center, EV charging, satellites, drones, and aircraft.

Helix Earth

Helix Earth develops the first retrofit system that gives commercial buildings fresher air, lower humidity, and lower energy costs without replacing a thing. Powered by NASA technology.

LiftOFF Technology

LiftOFF Technology develops next-generation battery cells that deliver up to 3× higher energy density with improved safety, using abundant, domestically available materials. Their drop-in technology scales on existing lithium-ion manufacturing infrastructure. Backed by Breakthrough Energy and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission, they accelerate technology development through AI-driven R&D.

MacroCycle Technologies

MacroCycle Technologies’ patented technology recycles plastic and polyester waste into virgin-grade MacroCycle PET or polyester resins to improve companies’ ability to meet sustainability goals, including satisfaction of PCR Regulations, elimination of landfill and ocean-bound plastics, and lowered Scope 3 emissions, all without a green premium.

Oleo

Oleo delivers reliable, lower-carbon fuel feedstocks at price parity with conventional alternatives. By converting waste into economical feedstocks, Oleo unlocks new production capacity for profitable advanced fuel pathways, ultimately, accelerating the transition to cleaner fuels.

Pascal

Pascal is commercializing solid refrigerants as cleaner, more efficient alternatives to gas refrigerants in a wide variety of heating, cooling, and refrigeration systems. Solid refrigerants eliminate the greenhouse gas emissions and air and water pollution caused by leaking gas refrigerants while improving the energy efficiency of refrigeration systems by at least 20%, all at similar costs to conventional systems. Pascal has fully integrated its solid refrigerant into a commercial refrigerator and is actively developing a solid refrigerant beverage cooler, in partnership with a major beverage brand.

Phase3D

Phase3D is on a mission to empower the additive manufacturing industry by offering a trusted part quality assurance technology. We produce quantitative measurements of the AM process using Fringe Projection to correlate build anomalies to material properties and part quality for all AM applications.

Sensate Robotics

Sensate Robotics™ builds multimodal tactile sensors and robotic gripping systems that give machines a true sense of touch and automate the work where irregular objects, quality judgment, and delicate handling meet a hard labor constraint. The company’s debut is in fruit handling, where the need is urgent, and the work still depends on human hands. The same technology reaches every industry where touch is the missing input.

SirenOpt

SirenOpt provides real-time, non-destructive materials characterization for advanced manufacturing using cold atmospheric plasma and AI through its PlasmaSens platform, targeting batteries, semiconductors, aerospace, power generation and other thin-film/coating manufacturers.

VioNano Innovations

VioNano develops specialty polymeric materials for advanced semiconductor manufacturing, helping chipmakers build smaller, faster, and more cost-effective chips for AI and quantum infrastructure.

AirMembrane

bitBiome

bitBiome is a next-generation AI x Bio platform company driving innovation in biomanufacturing. By combining proprietary single-cell genome sequencing with the world’s largest microbial gene database (over 3 billion genes) and AI-driven predictive modeling, bitBiome unlocks biological functions at scale. Partnering across pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, materials, and environmental applications, the company provides end-to-end solutions—from target discovery to process development—for a sustainable bioeconomy.

miibio

From Grain Fields to Silicon Fab. By using biomass as a raw material—without relying on petroleum at all—and utilizing a production process that combines microbial fermentation with proprietary light control, miibio achieves low-cost production of biochemicals. We focus on the production of semiconductor-related materials—substances of critical importance, particularly in the context of economic security—as well as high-value-added performance chemicals such as super-engineering plastics. By producing products with a price advantage over conventional petroleum-derived alternatives, we provide the world with a solution that simultaneously achieves petroleum independence and economic security (supply chain resilience).

Nano Chemix

Nano Chemix is a Tsukuba-based deep-tech startup developing high-performance metal oxide nanoparticles that can be transparently dispersed in organic materials. Using precision synthesis and surface design technologies, the company enables transparent composite materials compatible with solvents and resins, supporting optics applications such as lenses, glasses-type devices, and photonic integrated circuits.

OptQC

OptQC is a deep-tech startup aiming to provide a next-generation computing platform using optical quantum technology. Built upon over 25 years of research at the Furusawa Laboratory of the University of Tokyo, OptQC accelerates the practical application of quantum technology in the global market through an approach that simultaneously promotes research, development, and business.

Rhinoflux

Rhinoflux is an energy company spun out of Kyoto University. Using a combustion-free, aqueous chemical reaction, it efficiently generates electricity from vast biomass resources and captures pure CO₂ as a co-product. Deployed on-site rather than at central power stations, Rhinoflux brings unburned power generation to the real world — low-cost electricity and sellable CO₂ from biomass.

Rumi Light

Rumi Light develops DataFlux, a PCB-free interconnect platform for AI infrastructure. Its proprietary composite-material architecture enables faster data movement with lower power, lower system cost, and drop-in integration beyond conventional PCB limitations. Engineering samples are completed, with customer evaluations underway in Japan, Taiwan, and the United States.

XELA Robotics

XELA Robotics is a Tokyo-based robotics startup spun out from Waseda University. It develops tactile sensing systems, including uSkin sensors and uAi software, that help robots feel contact, improving how they grasp, manipulate, and interact with real environments. The company focuses on making automation more reliable, adaptable, and accessible across manufacturing, logistics and humanoids.