Startup Stratio announced on May 18 that its portable spectrometer LinkSquare, which is currently being sold on Kickstarter, was selected as a “Project We Love” on May 15 by Kickstarter staff. Stratio’s Kickstarter campaign will be held until June 8.

LinkSquare is a portable spectrometer that provides information on the test subject’s color and molecular composition by measuring its reactions to both visible and near-infrared radiation. The product currently featured on Kickstarter is targeted at developers. With LinkSquare, users can develop a wide range of mobile applications for various purposes, such as accurate color classification and the identification of synthetic jewels and artificial food. 

Stratio was founded in 2013 by four Ph.D graduates from Stanford University’s Department of Electrical Engineering who had managed to create a smaller version of a spectrometer by applying a small-scale optical design. With its development of a production technology that made it possible to create such a compact spectrometer, the company overcame the limitation of existing spectrometers, which are difficult to sell due to their large sizes and high prices. CEO Lee Jae Hyung said, “We made our product much more portable and affordable than existing spectrometers, based on our goal of making expensive equipment from developing countries more available for day-to-day use by ordinary consumers.”

Stratio unveiled LinkSquare at last year’s CES in January, gaining significant attention from companies in related areas. In January 2017, LinkSquare was designated as one of the top four products of its kind in the world in Hardware Battlefield, a competition hosted by TechCrunch, the largest US technology media property, featuring over 200 products from various countries. Stratio receives support for its overseas marketing activities from the domestic startup incubator K-ICT Born2Global Centre.

(jshwang@heraldcorp.com)