The disclosure generally relates to individual optical waveguides, sets of optical waveguides such as optical fiber ribbons, and fiber optic connectors useful for connecting individual optical waveguides or multiple optical fibers such as in optical fiber ribbon cables. In particular, the disclosure provides an efficient, compact, and reliable optical fiber connector that exhibits a low insertion loss for use with multimode optical waveguides. The optical connectors incorporate a unitary light coupling unit combining the features of optical fiber alignment, along with redirecting and shaping of the optical beam.