NOVA PHOTONICS INC

Princeton, NJ · Defense · Private

Diode-pumped solid-state laser operating at 518.36 nm (blue-green wavelength) for undersea optical communication

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Updated Oct 23, 2026 · novaphotonics.com

Sector: Defense
Headquarters: Princeton, NJ
Total capital: $11.9M

Federal grants: $3.3M; 5 awards · 2015–2019; Rank in peer group#145 of 164
Private capital raised: None on recordNo Form D filings on SEC EDGAR. Some raises are not filed.
Federal contracts: $8.6M; 11 awards · Defense, NASA; Rank in Defense#428 of 1442
Granted patents: None on recordNo USPTO grants. Applications publish after 18 months.

Capital timeline

Latest events

Sep 2022Federal contractDefense · Update & Delivery Of Active Filters$4.3M
Jul 2019Federal grantDefense · Phase II · A Tunable Yb:YAG/VBG Laser$1.5M
Jul 2018Federal grantEnergy · Phase I · Compact UV Laser for Fusion Diagnostics$150K
Jul 2017Federal grantDefense · Phase II · Wide Field Tunable Optical Filter$770K
Jun 2017Federal contractNASA · Igf::ot::igf We Propose The Use Of Programmable, Two-dimensional (2D) Coded Apertures For High-throughput Imaging Spectroscopy. Spatially-varying, 2D, Transmissive Or Reflective Encoded Mask, Such As A Hadamard Or Bernoulli Random Matrix, Can Be Leveraged To Realize High-throughput Variants Of Many Standard Imaging Spectroscopy Techniques With Throughput Enhancements Surpassing 50-100X Compared To Slit-based Systems. In Addition, Recent Advances In Fast-switching Spatial Light Modulators Enable $125K
Apr 2016Federal grantNSF · Phase II · SBIR Phase II: Barrier Centrifuge for Aluminum Purification$733K
Jun 2015Federal grantEnergy · Phase I · Plasma Magnetic Filter for Mass Separation$150K

Show 9 earlier federal awards

May 2014Federal contractDefense · Progress Report$80K
Dec 2013Federal contractDefense · Igf::ot::igf Small Business Innovative Research Phase II Tunable Stiffness Thorax/mechanism For Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicles$935K
Mar 2013Federal contractDefense · Research&development$750K
Jan 2013Federal contractDefense · Optical Filter For Submarine Laser Communications$697K
Jun 2012Federal contractDefense · Tunable Stiffness Thorax/mechanism For Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicle - Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase I$150K
Oct 2011Federal contractDefense · SBIR Pi Topic N112-110$150K
Jul 2010Federal contractDefense · Research And Development In The Physical, Engineering, And Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)$501K
May 2009Federal contractDefense · Research And Development In The Physical, Engineering, And Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)$100K
Jan 2008Federal contractDefense · SBIR Phase II Award$750K

Node area is scaled to amount. Form D reports securities sold, which can differ from an announced round; filings are numbered in the order they were made.

Standing among 164 peers

Line = median

Defense · Device

Federal grantsBelow median

Cumulative measures favor older companies. Rankings describe position today, not outcome. Below the median, ranks show as a band rather than a number.

Founders and team

No founders are linked to this company yet.

Founders appear once a person is matched to the company through its own patents, grants or filings. We never infer people from social profiles.

Checked: USPTO inventors; federal award principal investigators; SEC Form D related persons · Oct 23, 2026

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What it has protected

No granted patents are on record.

USPTO usually publishes applications 18 months after filing, so recent applications may not be visible yet. Patents assigned under a different entity name won’t match.

Checked: USPTO granted patents and published applications · Oct 23, 2026

Barnstorm Research CorporationSimilar federal contract value in Defense · $8.6M in contracts
APSIDAL LLCSimilar federal contract value in Defense · $8.6M in contracts
General Nano LLCSimilar federal contract value in Defense · $8.6M in contracts
PERCEPTIVE INNOVATIONS, INC.Similar federal contract value in Defense · $8.5M in contracts
J. F. Taylor, Inc.Similar federal contract value in Defense · $8.5M in contracts
ASYLON INCSimilar federal contract value in Defense · $8.5M in contracts

Regulatory activity · Defense

Sector-level, not company-level

11 Jun 2026Danger Zone; Waters of Carr Creek and Whitehall Bay in the Vicinity of the Naval Support Activity AnnapolisEngineers Corps
13 Mar 2026Federal Acquisition Regulation; Federal Acquisition Circular 2026-01; IntroductionNational Aeronautics and Space Administration
13 Mar 2026Federal Acquisition Regulation: Trade Agreements ThresholdsNational Aeronautics and Space Administration
13 Mar 2026Federal Acquisition Regulation; Federal Acquisition Circular 2026-01; Small Entity Compliance GuideNational Aeronautics and Space Administration
27 Aug 2025Federal Acquisition Regulation; Federal Acquisition Circular 2025-06; Small Entity Compliance GuideNational Aeronautics and Space Administration
27 Aug 2025Federal Acquisition Regulation; Federal Acquisition Circular 2025-06; IntroductionNational Aeronautics and Space Administration

Rules are matched to sector, not to company. Recent activity in a sector is context rather than a signal about this business — until rules are matched to what a company actually builds, the section is shown as context and nothing more.

Sources

Federal grants from SBIR/STTR, NIH, NSF and DoD records. Federal contracts from USAspending.gov. Private capital from SEC Form D. Patents from USPTO. Publications from OpenAlex. Regulatory activity from the Federal Register. Press matched on company name.

How to read this page

Figures show associations in public records, not causes or predictions. Nothing here is investment advice. An em-dash means no record was found under this company's name, not that none exists.

Data freshness

SEC Form D filings through Oct 23, 2026. SBIR and STTR awards through Oct 21, 2026.