Greek startupper Johannes Galatsanos is part of the team that beat over a thousand applicants to win this year’s Slush 100 startup competition in Helsinki for his Boston-based MIT spinout, Diffraqtion, earning €1 million ($1.15 M).
The startup, launched in 2024 by co-founders Galatsanos, Saikat Guha, and Christine Yi-Ting Wang, will be taking home the one million euro equity funding prize from Cherry Ventures and General Catalyst.
Galatsanos was the team member who presented the final pitch to the Slush 100 jury.
Next generation visual AI hardware
Diffraqtion is described as an early stage deeptech startup with roots in MIT and University of Arizona.
It is building the next generation of visual AI hardware and software to make satellites and machines see further and think faster than ever.
According to its LinkedIn page, the company makes revolutionary smart cameras that see 20 times further and understand what they see a thousand times faster than the best current cameras and processors.
Its technology is developed with NASA to fit into the Habitable Worlds Observatory, dedicated to find exoplanets that can support life.
Prior to the Slush 100 one million euro ($1.15 M) equity funding prize, Diffraqtion had received one and a half million U.S. dollars funding from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and another two and a half million U.S. dollars from American investment capital, according to AMNA.
More spinout technologies needed
Speaking to AMNA’s correspondent Maria Kouzinopoulou, Galatsanos, who is of Greek and German ancestry, expressed the hope for the creation of similar programs in Greece, like there are in the U.S.., for spinout technologies developed by universities.
“There are very good professors in Greece, who produce very good science,” he opined.
As about his own team’s thriumph at Slush 100, Galatsanos said he was still processing his emotions.
“I believe that this distinction will greatly help our contacts with Europe and perhaps even collaborations with European governments,” he added.
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