Mesodyne discovers a new way to deliver power in challenging environments

Mesodyne is developing a new kind of power generator that converts fuel to electricity via light. The company is one of 10 finalist companies with optics, imaging and photonics-enabled technologies that’s working with NextCorps’ Luminate NY accelerator as part of its fourth cohort. Each company received an initial investment of $100,000 and is participating in the six-month program, which helps the selected companies speed the commercialization of their technologies and businesses. On September 30th at Finals 2021, they will compete for up to $2 million in follow-on investment. Funding for the $25 million program is being provided through the Finger Lakes Forward Upstate Revitalization Initiative.

“Our cohort participants are in the final weeks of their program, working up to a competition that will afford one of them an opportunity to secure additional funding to help take their innovation and business to the next level,” said Dr. Sujatha Ramanujan, managing director of Luminate. “Mesodyne is an impressive contender. The company’s LightCell™ power generator offers a compact, long-lasting, quiet and reliable power alternative.”

The Rochester Business Journal is featuring profiles of the companies that are helping to write the next chapter in Rochester’s history as the world’s center for optics, photonics and imaging (OPI).

We caught up with Veronika Stelmakh, Mesodyne’s CEO, to discuss how the company was created and how its platform technology can be applied to any application where performance is limited by battery weight or where other sources of power, including grid, solar and wind, are not available or practical.

Tell us about your company. 

Walker Chan, now Mesodyne’s chief technology officer, and I founded Mesodyne in January 2018. Our patented LightCell™ power generator serves industrial, scientific and defense industries by enabling long endurance power generation for remote unmanned sites and systems, drones and robots, warfighters and emergency responders. Mesodyne is headquartered in Somerville, Mass.

How did you and your team develop the concept for your product? 

In 2017, during our graduate studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Walker and I demonstrated the world record efficiency for hydrocarbon thermophotovoltaic energy conversion. This record-setting demonstration got us really excited about the possibility of commercializing the technology to bring a new way to produce energy into the world. We participated in several accelerators at MIT and found an initial product market fit after interviewing more than 200 potential customers for The National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program. In 2018, we founded Mesodyne to bring the technology to market.

Why does the world need this product?

Mesodyne’s mission is to provide portable, efficient, reliable, silent power generation to users and systems in challenging environments, including on land, in air and at sea. We envision the company shaping the way power is generated. Whether it’s drones having more range than ever, warfighters having access to power on the move like never before or individuals living off grid having access to reliable power, the LightCell generator will be the go-to solution.

How long have you been working on this technology?

We have been working on the technology since our Ph.D.’s at MIT’s Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies. After setting a record for energy conversion at MIT in 2017, we participated in several incubators at MIT and the NSF I-Corps and founded Mesodyne. We were then selected to incubate the company at the Chain Reaction Innovations program, a fellowship program for clean energy and science technologies at Argonne National Lab, a science and engineering research national laboratory for the United States Department of Energy. We then participated in the Techstars accelerator and Air Force Mass Challenge program before joining the Luminate program.

Who is the target audience for your product?

We currently sell directly to systems integrators.

What made you look to Rochester to further your product?

Deep-tech companies like ours always face technical and engineering challenges, such as scaling and driving down costs to gain access to wider commercial markets. We were attracted to Rochester and to the Luminate program because of their rich history of helping photonics companies solve these challenges and grow from the lab to functioning businesses with fully developed products. They offer a unique, wide network of foundries, specialized facilities and expertise.

Tell us about your experience being in Luminate.

The Luminate team is very supportive and engaged with startups in their cohorts and eager to find solutions to the problems we face. They have introduced us to a wide network of photonics experts, enabling us to connect with the additional resources we need to advance our product.

What are you hoping to achieve during your time in Luminate?

Our main goal in joining the Luminate program is to understand where we could manufacture different aspects of the LightCell generator in the U.S., particularly the photonic crystal which requires specialized cleanroom equipment and how to lower the cost of fabrication.

If your company wins, what do you plan to do with the follow-on funding?

If we win, we plan to use the follow-on funding to expand our manufacturing capabilities. Particularly, we are interested in building out our own facility with the specialized semiconductor equipment required to manufacture the LightCell generator.