Light behaves until it doesn’t. That tension is where Luminit Inc. has lived since 2005, when the Torrance, CA company spun out of Physical Optics Corporation with a sharp belief that light could be shaped, directed, and controlled with far more precision. Luminit added torque to that mission, securing a $2M non dilutive growth facility from Hum Capital, structured as an asset based revolving line of credit tied to A/R and inventory. No equity traded. No noise. Capital that understands factories, not vibes.
This is not financial choreography. It is working capital engineered for scale. The facility allows Luminit to expand roll to roll production, accelerate customer deliveries, and grow manufacturing capacity across defense, aerospace, automotive, and industrial programs already moving fast. When optical display demand is up 100% YoY, flexibility stops being a luxury and starts being survival. This line keeps production elastic without slowing the roadmap or forcing dilution.
Inside Luminit’s 33,000 sq ft Torrance facility, the story gets tangible. Roll to roll and rigid production lines. Cleanrooms. 9 laser labs. Dedicated R&D. Kilometers of auto certified holographically mastered film produced through patented R2R tools that very few companies globally can run at this scale. This is where HUD optics and AR windshield films stop being talked about and start being shipped.
Leadership matters when tolerances are measured in microns. Dr. Jonathan Waldern, appointed CTO in Jan 2024 and promoted to Chief Executive & Technical Officer in Jul 2024, brings 20+ yrs of building waveguide HUDs at DigiLens Inc., where he raised $85M and delivered the world’s first FAA certified waveguide HUD. Founder and Chairman Dr. Engin Arik brings 30+ yrs of profitable company building across holography and photonics. CFO Joseph Gilbride, in seat since Apr 2022, keeps the financial engine tight enough to scale without breaking cadence.
The tech stack runs deep. Transparent holographic optical elements with >12,000 nits brightness, wide FOV, large eyeboxes, and ~3% haze. Light Shaping Diffusers originally developed for NASA, delivering up to 92% transmission efficiency. Light Shaping Micro Optics engineered via grayscale lithography and built for R2R replication. 150+ patents protecting the path from laser lab to windshield.
Hum Capital shows up here as infrastructure, not a headline. Founded in 2019 and rebranded in 2021, Hum has deployed $700M+ across 6,000+ companies. This facility followed a detailed review of Luminit’s receivables and inventory, signaling confidence in execution as Luminit prepares for a Series A.
Automotive HUDs, HOEs, waveguide combiners. The markets are expanding, but the real signal is operational. A 2025 U.S. manufacturing expansion for high volume advanced optics. A subsidiary in Hsinchu serving global automakers. Hiring underway. When light gets shaped at scale, attention follows, and Luminit is clearly still dialing it in.
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