Innovating the Future: Our Story

Our Mission

Our goal is to make 3D sensing ubiquitous, creating a safer world and enhancing quality of life

Lumotive’s award-winning optical semiconductor solutions enable advanced sensing and perception capabilities in next-generation consumer, mobility, and industrial automation products such as mobile devices, autonomous vehicles, and robots. The company’s patented Light Control Metasurface (LCM™) beam steering chips deliver an unparalleled combination of high performance, exceptional reliability, and low cost — all in a tiny, easily integrated solution.
Awards and Recognition

Fast Company
Next Big Things in Tech 2023

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CES 2024
Innovation Awards

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SPIE 2022
PRISM Award​

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CES 2022
Innovation Awards

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Business Intelligence 2022
Excellence in AI

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Edison Award 2022
Winner

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Sensors Converge 2021
Startup of the Year

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EETimes Silicon 100 2021
Startups to Watch

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Leadership Team

Sam Heidari, Ph.D.

CEO

Gleb Akselrod, Ph.D.

CTO, founder

Apurva Jain, Ph.D.

VP of Engineering

Axel Fuchs, Ph.D.

VP of Business Development

Rakinder Grover

VP of Strategy and Partnerships

Board of Directors

Conrad Burke

BOARD MEMBER

Larry Froeber

Board Member

Jim Anderson

Board Member

Sam Heidari, Ph.D.

BOARD MEMBER

Gleb Akselrod, Ph.D.

BOARD MEMBER

Sam Heidari, Ph.D.

CEO, Board Member

Sam Heidari brings three decades of extensive management experience in the semiconductor sector. He currently holds the position of CEO at Lumotive, serves as Chairman at Arctic Semiconductor, and a board member of Morse Micro. Previously, he served as CEO and Chairman at Quantenna Communications, CEO at Doradus Technologies, and CTO at Ikanos.

Dr. Heidari has made valuable contributions to the industry by serving on the Global Semiconductor Alliance Board of Directors and the advisory boards for both the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Departments at the University of Southern California.

His accomplishments have been recognized with esteemed awards, including being named the 2014 Executive of the Year by the Golden Bridge Awards, a 2016 finalist for EY Entrepreneur of the Year, and the 2017 Executive of the Year by UBM. Dr. Heidari is a senior member of the IEEE and holds more than 50 U.S. and international patents.

Dr. Heidari earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California, and a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Northeastern University.

Gleb Akselrod, Ph.D.

CTO, Founder, Board Member

Gleb Akselrod has more than 10 years experience in photonics and optoelectronics. Prior to Lumotive he was the Director for Optical Technologies at Intellectual Ventures in Bellevue, WA, where he led a program on the commercialization of optical metamaterial and nanophotonic technologies.

Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Metamaterials and Integrated Plasmonics at Duke University, where his work focused on plasmonic nanoantennas and metasurfaces. He completed his Ph.D. in 2013 at MIT, where he was a Hertz Foundation Fellow and an NSF Graduate Fellow studying excitons in materials for solar cells and OLEDs. Prior to MIT, Dr. Akselrod was at Landauer, Inc. where he developed and patented a fluorescent radiation sensor that is currently deployed by the US Army.

Dr. Akselrod received his Ph.D. in Physics from MIT and his B.S. in Engineering Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He holds more than 30 US Patents and has published over 25 scientific articles.

Apurva Jain, Ph.D.

VP of Engineering

Apurva Jain has over 10 years of experience in optoelectronics, product development, program management and precision manufacturing. His expertise is in building and managing teams to transform early concepts into commercially successful products employing best design and manufacturing practices.

Prior to Lumotive he was the Director of New Product Development at Avo Photonics, a private-label design and contract manufacturing firm. There he worked on over 20 optoelectronic products from concept through volume manufacturing for industrial sensing, medical diagnostics and telecom markets.

Dr. Jain received his Ph.D. in Optics from CREOL, University of Central Florida and B.Eng. in Electrical Engineering from McGill University.

Axel Fuchs, Ph.D.

VP of Business Development

Over the past three decades, Axel Fuchs has demonstrated a strong track record in managing key aspects of global high-tech businesses.

In 1995, Dr. Fuchs co-founded the Daimler Benz Research and Technology office. He later joined Motorola's newly established Telematics division, where he led the Systems Engineering Team. Since 2002, Dr. Fuchs has held leadership positions at several Silicon Valley startups, where he played a pivotal role in developing the automotive business and expanding the consumer segment for Simple Devices, which was acquired by Universal Electronics in 2004. He also led business development for Quanergy, growing the business from inception to $50 million.

Dr. Fuchs holds a Ph.D. in Control Engineering from Darmstadt University of Technology.

Rakinder Grover

VP of Strategy and Partnerships

Rakinder Grover is a technology executive with over 25 years of experience. His expertise is in business management, business development and venture capital investing in high-growth, innovation-led companies.

Prior to Lumotive, Mr. Grover held various management roles at Dolby Laboratories and Ikanos. As a Managing Director at Walden International, he was a venture capital investor in early-stage semiconductor and communications startups.

Mr. Grover holds an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Texas and a bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology.

Conrad Burke

Board Member

Conrad Burke is based in Silicon Valley and is managing partner at MetaVC Partners, LLC. He is an entrepreneur and investor, building successful new businesses in renewable energy, communications, nanomaterials, and biosciences. He was founder and CEO of energy materials startup, Innovalight (acquired by DuPont) and was venture partner at Sevin Rosen Funds and Invention Science Fund (ISF).

Some of his past and current board responsibilities include Capella Photonics (acquired by Alcatel-Lucent), Lumotive, Imagia, and the advisory boards of Aelurus (acquired by Broadcom), InnerAnalytics and Cendana Capital. For three years, Mr. Burke served on the board of SolarPower Europe - the European solar industry association. He was a Technology Pioneer at the World Economic Forum in Davos for renewable energy innovations and he is a recipient of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year™ award. Conrad has extensive international experience having worked and lived in Japan, Germany, the U.K. at AT&T, NEC and Lucent Technologies.

He has a MS in Physics from Trinity College and a BS in Physics from University College Dublin in Ireland.

Larry Froeber

Board Member

Larry Froeber is the Chief Financial Officer at Intellectual Ventures (IV), responsible for managing critical corporate functions including finance, tax, treasury, information technology, investor relations, and fundraising. Larry also provides oversight of remaining Invention Science Fund activities. In addition, Larry has served as a board member for several IV spinout companies. He currently sits on the boards of Imagia and Lumotive, and previously served as board member for Modern Electron and Purposeful. Larry joined IV's finance leadership team as senior director of finance in 2008 and became vice president of finance in 2009. In 2015, he was appointed deputy chief financial officer before assuming his current role in 2016.

Prior to joining IV, Mr. Froeber served as the Chief Financial Officer at one of Washington State’s largest and fastest-growing privately held mortgage banks, where he provided oversight on corporate strategy, fundraising, secondary market mortgage sales, investor relations, and finance and tax. Prior to this role, he was vice president and head of finance and administration for Ignition Partners, a Seattle-area venture capital firm that invests in early-stage software and information technology companies, with approximately $1 billion in capital under management. At Ignition, he was responsible for the firm’s financial operations, reporting, tax, treasury, administration services, and investor relations.

Mr. Froeber earned a business degree from the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business where he remains an active university supporter. He has been a licensed certified public accountant in both the state of Washington and the state of Oregon.

Jim Anderson

Board Member

Jim Anderson was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Coherent Corp. and a member of the Board of Directors on June 3, 2024. He previously served as a director and as President and Chief Executive Officer of Lattice Semiconductor Corporation since September 2018.

Prior to joining Lattice, Mr. Anderson served as the Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Computing and Graphics Business Group at Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD). Prior to AMD, Mr. Anderson held a broad range of leadership positions spanning general management, engineering, sales, marketing, and corporate strategy at companies including Intel, Broadcom (formerly Avago Technologies), and LSI Corporation. 

Mr. Anderson has served on the board of directors of Entegris, Inc., since March 2023, and he currently serves on the board of directors of the Semiconductor Industry Association. He previously served on the board of directors of Sierra Wireless from April 2020 to January 2023.

Mr. Anderson earned an MBA and Master of Science degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University, and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota.