Lightyear Honors Motorola Solutions, Trade Desk Teams at Fourth Luminaries Awards

Lightyear announced the winners of its fourth annual Luminaries of Telecom Awards on November 6, 2026, recognizing people and teams across four categories. The awards were presented live for the first time at Layer8 by Lightyear, a one-day industry event in New York on November 4, 2026, PR Newswire reported.

Motorola Solutions Team Leads Platform Excellence

Lightyear is a New York-based company founded in 2019 that sells an AI-native platform for enterprise telecom procurement, network inventory management and expense management. Its Platform Excellence category recognizes individuals who use the Lightyear platform through rapid implementation, innovative application and measurable business impact.

Motorola Solutions won in that category through Nicole Pagliaro-Mojica, senior manager I of IT network business operations for telecom services; Yader Rodriguez, network engineer; and Tina Covert, network and telecom senior project manager. Rise Internet's Duane Zechmann, field engineering manager, also won in Platform Excellence.

The AI Trailblazer category, for leaders applying agentic AI in network operations, went to The Trade Desk's Aftab Ali, head of infrastructure BizOps, and Kazuma Nagatori, lead staff network engineer, along with Elauwit Connection's Taylor Jones, president and CTO. FactSet's Umer Malik, associate director of data centers and network operations, won the Dream Team category.

Honeywell Aerospace's Todd Stewart, vice president of network, infrastructure, computing and support, and Solstice Advanced Materials' Bryan Adcock, senior strategic sourcing manager of global IT procurement, and Steve Delatte, IT director, won Transformation of the Year.

"Telecom is at an inflection point. AI is changing what's possible in network operations, but successful transformation still comes down to the people willing to challenge the status quo and rethink how things have always been done," said Dennis Thankachan, CEO and co-founder of Lightyear.

Lightyear's Funding and Platform Scale

Lightyear raised an additional $16 million in an undisclosed funding round in January 2026, bringing total disclosed capital to approximately $60.1 million, or $65 million per the company's claim, according to akta.pro company records. The same records list five funding rounds, including a $31.2 million Series B in September 2024 led by Altos Ventures.

Lightyear's platform serves more than 450 enterprises, the company said in the announcement. Its Procurement, Network Inventory Management and Expense Management products combine software, AI agents, data from more than 1,200 carriers and telecom experts.

Lightyear's Agentic AI Launches

Lightyear launched Dispatch, an AI platform billed as the first agentic system for enterprise telecom, in August 2026, RCR Wireless News reported. The platform offers two agents that handle quoting and implementation workflows for network services.

The Fast Mode reported the same month that Lightyear introduced Dispatch alongside two operational AI agents, the Quoting Agent and the Implementation Agent. Fierce Network reported that Dispatch was designed to automate telecom procurement and installation for enterprise customers.

What Comes Next for the Awards

Lightyear said it will hold the Luminaries awards again next year, without giving a date.