Specialised eyewear company IXI has successfully completed its latest round of Series A fundraising, securing a total of $36.5m from investors that include Amazon’s Alexa Fund. The company plans to harness eye-tracking liquid crystal lens technology to automatically adjust glasses to the user’s vision impairment. IXI wants to cater to the neglected prescription eyewear base within the burgeoning smart eyewear industry.
IXI est ici
CEO Niko Eiden and COO Jussi Havu left details on liquid crystal lens technology scant. All we know is that it uses a small built-in sensor to track the user’s eyes and adjust focus according to the user through liquid crystal encased within the glass. The company estimates the glasses’ battery will last two days. Once they lose power, users can still squeeze some use out of them as they’ll be sold with a built-in prescription, as long as it’s nearsighted.
Other companies are working on smart glasses with automatically adjustable prescriptions. IXI believes its version is potentially the most viable because “[a]uto-tuning lenses require low-power high-performance, eye-tracking and algorithmic adjustment to liquid crystal lenses at very high speed.” Other companies have no plans for a product any time soon, though IXI promises a lab-ready prototype later this year, which seems to be why investors are willing to punt on it.
When it comes to the thorny issue of price point, Havu says that without a product, prices are up in the air. Though the company can confirm that the product will not be priced like regular bifocals, it’ll be closer to high-end consumer electronics like iPhones. “Not ultra luxury, still mass market,” Havu added. The truth of that statement is highly dependent on the buyer’s income bracket.
The VR space has seen slow but steady growth over the last few years, but profits remain in the single-digit billions, an issue for investors who loaded hundreds of millions into the market expecting steep iPhone-like growth. It’s been hard going for some. Microsoft pulled the plug on HoloLens last October, with no plans to get back into the ring.
IXI feels that the prescription market is an unexplored niche-within-the-niche that could give eyewear tech companies a much-needed foothold in the industry as they wait for the rest of the market to catch up. So while you won’t be able to check the weather, spot cute animals in mixed reality, or get more info on your friend’s cool backpack with these, the hope is that the days of needing to own multiple pairs of glasses may be numbered.
