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LightPath Technologies Receives $5 Million Order for Infrared Optical Lens Elements

Order to Ship Over 12 Months; Backlog Increasing with Additional Orders for Infrared, Visible Light and Combination Optics Assemblies

ORLANDO, FL / ACCESSWIRE / January 3, 2018 / LightPath Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: LPTH) ("LightPath," the "Company," or "we"), a leading vertically integrated global manufacturer, distributor and integrator of proprietary optical and infrared components and high-level assemblies, today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, ISP Optics Corporation ("ISP"), has been awarded a $5 million purchase contract to supply a variety of infrared ("IR") optical lens elements to a major commercial infrared vision products customer.

Jim Gaynor, President and Chief Executive Officer of LightPath, said, "We are very pleased to have been recognized in a competitive bidding process for having industry-leading capabilities in the high growth infrared sector. This purchase contract requires manufacturing to commence immediately, with monthly shipping of lenses throughout 2018. LightPath was selected by the customer after an evaluation of suppliers based on volume manufacturing capabilities, materials and cost analysis, and global service and support for an optimized value proposition. This single contract represents 16% of our trailing 12-month revenues through September 2017. We are confident that recent investments in our production capacity and sales and marketing initiatives are delivering their intended results."

According to market research firm MarketsandMarkets, the vision products market is estimated to grow from US$5.4 billion in 2016 to US$6.9 billion in 2022. However, research shows that a major challenge for vision products manufacturers is high cost. LightPath has come to the aid of these manufacturers by lowering the cost and improving the functionality of integrated optical technologies. The cost competitive delivery of these components and assemblies are being facilitated by the significant investments LightPath has made in diamond turning, optical coating, and state of the art chalcogenide molding technology and staffing.

"LightPath also was recently awarded an initial commercial contract with a major supplier for state of the art infrared optical assemblies designed into the customer's next generation of IR detectors," added Mr. Gaynor. "Shipments began in the quarter ended December 2017 for lenses that are part of an infrared system, which is smaller, lighter and consumes less power while delivering significantly greater image definition and reliability.

Leveraging its proprietary technologies for night vision and as a leading provider of innovative chalcogenide glass lenses, LightPath is well-positioned with a differentiated family of products for various types of automotive night vision applications. The Company has the unique capability to package together a combination of infrared and visible light optics assemblies. The Company expects many automobile manufacturers to begin adopting next generation infrared night vision or thermal night vision capabilities.

In November 2017, the Company announced the expansion of ISP's facilities in Latvia, which expansion anticipated the orders announced today along with substantially higher production requirements for infrared products based on heightened market demand. The facility expansion added 435 square meters of floor space, including 343 square meters of manufacturing and production space and 92 square meters of office space. The expansion increased the footprint of the Latvian facility by 25%, from 1,753 square meters to 2,188 square meters. LightPath also previously disclosed investments of approximately $1.4 million globally to expand its production capacity, which includes significant spending on equipment and facilities in Latvia. The facility and equipment expansion in Latvia enables LightPath to support continued sales growth of infrared products, improve its cost structure, and provide additional support to customers.

These facility and equipment investments are in addition to research and product development spending to bolster the Company's technological leadership. As a result, LightPath has improved its time to market for new product innovations and accelerated delivery for custom and traditional projects. LightPath's product development efforts include advanced driver assistance systems or ADAS, light distance and ranging or LIDAR sensing, and spectrographic and fiber delivery technologies. Many of these products, which are being designed for higher margin applications within the automotive electronics and healthcare, incorporate the Company's infrared technologies and, in certain cases, also include its visible light technologies.

About LightPath Technologies

LightPath Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: LPTH) is a leading global, vertically integrated provider of optics, photonics and infrared solutions for the industrial, defense, telecommunications, testing and measurement, and medical industries. LightPath designs, manufactures, and distributes proprietary optical and infrared components including molded glass aspheric lenses and assemblies, infrared lenses and thermal imaging assemblies, fused fiber collimators, and gradient index GRADIUMĀ® lenses. LightPath also offers custom optical assemblies, including full engineering design support. The Company is headquartered in Orlando, Florida, with manufacturing and sales offices in New York, Latvia, and China.

LightPath's wholly-owned subsidiary, ISP Optics Corporation, manufactures a full range of infrared products from high performance MWIR and LWIR lenses and lens assemblies. ISP's infrared lens assembly product line includes athermal lens systems used in cooled and un-cooled thermal imaging cameras. Manufacturing is performed in-house to provide precision optical components including spherical, aspherical and diffractive coated infrared lenses. ISP's optics processes allow it to manufacture its products from all important types of infrared materials and crystals. Manufacturing processes include CNC grinding and CNC polishing, diamond turning, continuous and conventional polishing, optical contacting and advanced coating technologies.

For more information on LightPath and its businesses, please visit www.lightpath.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes statements that constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding our ability to expand our presence in certain markets, future sales growth, and industry outlook and market trends. This information may involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, factors detailed by LightPath Technologies, Inc. in its public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K. Except as required under the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission, we do not have any intention or obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Contacts:

Jim Gaynor, President & CEO
LightPath Technologies, Inc.
Tel: 407-382-4003
jgaynor@lightpath.com
Web: www.lightpath.com

Dorothy Cipolla, CFO
LightPath Technologies, Inc.
Tel: 407-382-4003 x305
dcipolla@lightpath.com
Web: www.lightpath.com

Jordan Darrow
Darrow Associates, Inc.
Tel: 512-551-9296
jdarrow@darrowir.com
Web: www.darrowir.com

SOURCE: LightPath Technologies, Inc.

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