Photonium

AI-Powered Optical Consulting & Software

2.3Score#586 of 999 agents#10 of 25 in Hardware engineer

Why it ranks #586

Photonium, an AI hardware engineer from YC Sp25, ranks #586 of 999 AI agents and #10 of 25 in Hardware engineer, with a score of 2.3 of 10. Data as of 3 Oct 2026.

The score adds four parts, each 0 to 10, by weight. Every point comes from public evidence. How scoring works ·

Proof 0 × 30% 0.0
Scale 3 × 30% 0.9
Momentum 2 × 25% 0.5
Autonomy 6 × 15% 0.9
= 2.3

Proof
Do customers use it? 30% of the score
0
No public claims of customers or revenue yet.
Not found: revenue or growth (+4), named customers (+3), a customer result (+2), a customer count (+2), work done at scale (+2)
Scale
Is there a real company behind it? 30% of the score
3
5 people.
- +3
  5 people on its YC page5 to 9 people
Not found: funding round in its news (+3)
Momentum
Is it shipping and growing now? 25% of the score
2
Shows hiring.
- +2
  Hiring: 1 open roleFounding ML EngineerYC page
Not found: launch YC post in the last 6 months (+3), new traction claim in the last 6 months (+2), funding news in the last year (+2), a batch in the last year (it is YC Spring 2025) (+1)
Autonomy
How much of the job does it do on its own? 15% of the score
6
Supervised agent: takes actions in other systems; a person approves key steps.
- +6
  Level 2 of 4: Supervised agentTakes actions in other systems; a person approves key steps.
What the model read
- Acts in other systems: 39% likely
- Finishes whole tasks: 28% likely
- Calls itself an agent: 3% likely
- Level 1 from the model's reading of its pages; the evidence review found, with quotes, that its AI acts in the work, so the level is 2
Level 2: Takes actions in other systems; a person approves key steps.

About Photonium

Photonium is building software to automate optical system design. We supercharge optics experts with intelligent tooling to reduce costs and deliver faster. We handle the full design stack — from optimization, verification, sourcing, to prototyping — for AR/VR, quantum, biotech, metrology/chip fab, LiDAR, and more.