Louis-Philippe Pleau, winner of the Emerging Entrepreneur Award, accompanied on the left by Sophie LaRochelle, Director of COPL, and on the right by Sophie D'Amours, President of Université Laval.
On the occasion of the 35th anniversary celebration of the strategic cluster and research center, COPL took advantage of the gathering of the research and innovation ecosystem, and the presence of Université Laval President Sophie D’Amours, to intrduce the winner of 2024 Emerging Entrepreneur Award.
Launched in the fall, this initiative has received a warm welcome from the community. The award recognizes a former COPL student who has distinguished himself or herself by developing or deploying a technological innovation resulting from the research work of a team led by a member professor.
The applications received were all excellent. Brilliant, multi-skilled individuals, combining scientific and engineering expertise with strong management skills and an eagerness to learn and master the functions required to set up a high-tech company.
The selection committee chose Louis-Philippe Pleau, co-founder of LumIR Lasers.
He holds a master’s degree in physics, obtained in 2020, and a bachelor’s degree in engineering physics with a major optics-photonics. He was co-supervised by Université Laval professors Réal Vallée and Martin Bernier. It was during this period that the company project took shape. With the help of his partners and co-founders, Vincent Fortin, Martin Bernier and Réal Vallée, the prize winner designed and the company now manufactures an entirely new fiber-optic laser technology with revolutionary properties for medical applications.
The unique wavelength of these products (in the mid-infrared), which is highly absorbed by biological tissues, enables surgical and aesthetic procedures to be carried out with unrivalled precision. The company, which exclusively exploits several Université Laval patents, sells its products to medical equipment manufacturers, who integrate them into their devices. A first medical device using the technology received FDA approval in 2022, and the company has grown exponentially since then, having delivered over 300 lasers for medical purposes and recently reached $5M in sales. 100% of sales are exported outside Canada, to some ten countries. The company was recognized as one of Canada’s fastest-growing companies in 2024 by the Globe and Mail, and is working on setting up a new place of business in Quebec City to pursue its growth.
Congratulations to Louis-Philippe Pleau on this COPL recognition!