UBC spin-off Dream Photonics scales photonics manufacturing after New Ventures BC win
3D-printed micro-lenses cut a key optical-assembly step from about 80 minutes to roughly 35 seconds.
Dream Photonics, a University of British Columbia spin-off co-founded by engineering professors Lukas Chrostowski and Sudip Shekhar, is moving from campus labs into its own Vancouver facility to scale photonics manufacturing, UBC News reported on Thursday.
The company builds custom 3D-printed micro-lenses that direct light between chips, aiming to replace slow, manual optical alignment that can dominate manufacturing cost. Clients can cut a process that once took about 80 minutes down to about 35 seconds, according to UBC.
In September 2026, Dream Photonics won the Innovate BC first-place prize of CA$110,000 at the 2026 New Ventures BC competition. PacificCan funding of CA$1.1 million is helping the company buy infrastructure for the new site.
Dream Photonics has been profitable since 2021 and reported CA$1.6 million in revenue in 2025. It employs more than a dozen people, most of them UBC graduates, and holds company-owned and UBC-licensed patent families covering the technology.
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