Lancaster University spinout Photarix has been named as Rising Star Startup of the Year at the ClimbAwards 2026, recognising the company as one of the UK’s most promising emerging businesses.

The award was presented to Photarix CEO and co-founder Dr Gizem Acar Tekin at Climb26, a two-day festival of business growth and innovation held at the Royal Armouries in Leeds.

The inaugural ClimbAwards celebrated individuals and organisations driving innovation, growth and positive change across the country. The competition attracted 774 nominations across ten categories, with 50 finalists progressing through a public voting and final review process.

Photarix won in the Rising Star category, which recognises emerging companies demonstrating exceptional innovation, ambition and early-stage momentum. The ClimbAwards organisers described Photarix as “one of the UK’s most exciting emerging businesses” and highlighted its potential to disrupt its industry.

Gizem Acar Tekin said: “Winning the Rising Star Award is a strong vote of confidence in Photarix and the progress we have made since spinning out from Lancaster University. It reflects the ambition of our team and the research and support behind the company. We are now focused on moving our semiconductor light-source technology towards real-world deployment and making quantum-secure communications more scalable and practical.”

The award represents another important milestone for Photarix as it transforms semiconductor research developed in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Lancaster University into practical technology for quantum-secure communications. It follows on from Dr Acar Tekin’s accolade as ‘One to Watch’ in the Most Inspiring Women in Cyber Awards earlier this year.

Photarix is developing a compact and scalable quantum light source that operates at wavelengths used by existing fibre-optic telecommunications networks.

Reliable quantum light sources are an essential component of quantum communication systems. However, many current technologies are expensive, difficult to manufacture at scale or dependent on cryogenic cooling. These practical barriers make it challenging to deploy quantum-secure communications more widely.

Photarix aims to overcome this bottleneck with electrically driven semiconductor devices designed to be compact, cost-effective and capable of operating at or close to room temperature. Compatibility with existing telecommunications infrastructure could also make the technology easier to integrate into future quantum networks.

The company grew out of Dr Acar Tekin’s doctoral research at Lancaster University and was co-founded with Professor Manus Hayne, Dr Samuel Jones and Jeremy Gidlow.

Since its incorporation in 2025, Photarix has built significant early-stage momentum through national innovation and commercialisation programmes. Dr Acar Tekin participated in Innovate UK’s ICURe and CyberASAP programmes, and the company secured an Innovate UK Growth Catalyst grant and joined a Global Business Innovation Programme mission to Singapore.

Photarix has also represented UK quantum and cybersecurity innovation at major national and international events, including the International Cyber Expo, CyberUK and the UK Global R&D and Science Investment Summit.