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Swave Photonicsa holographic display company, raised $28.27 million to prepare components for AI-powered smart glasses and heads-up displays.
Swave said the Series A investment will catalyze the advancement of its Holographic eXtended Reality (HXR) platform, enabling a reality-focused user experience for smart glasses and powered augmented reality (AR) heads-up displays by AI. The company will present its technology at CES 2025.
The funding round was co-led by investors Imec.xpand and SFPIM Relaunch, with participation from new investors EIC Fund, IAG Capital Partners and Murata Electronics North America, as well as existing investors Qbic Fund, PMV, Imec and Luminate.
Swave, based in Leuven, Belgium previously raised a $10.47 million seed round in 2023, propelling the launch of Swave’s HXR technology, as well as the expansion of Swave’s team, which includes veterans of photonics and semiconductors.
“This round will accelerate the launch of Swave products as we continue to solve the challenges of today’s AR experiences with true holography,” Mike Noonen, CEO of Swave, said in a statement. “We are delighted with the continued support of our existing and new investors. They recognize that Swave uniquely brings together semiconductor, holographic and AI technologies in a way that provides cost-effective and truly useful solutions.
“AR glasses are poised to become the primary interface for spatial computing and other AI-based applications, and Swave is uniquely positioned to enable this future,” said Theo Marescaux, Swave and Chief Technology Officer. products, in a press release. “We co-design every element, from our holographic SLMs with cutting-edge nano-pixels, to real-time computing chips, lighting engines and AR combiners, to deliver the most advanced and integrated solution to this day.
“Thanks to Swave’s seed funding, we managed to build our team, prove the capabilities of the technology and make prototypes,” said Dmitri Choutov, COO, in a statement. “With Series A funding secured and silicon used in our partner fabs, we are on track to introduce product development kits and, soon after, production devices. »
Swave’s HXR technology uses what it calls the “world’s smallest pixel” to shape light and sculpt high-quality 3D holographic images that create a reality-driven user experience, where digital information interacts and interacts. adapt to the user’s environment. The images allow the human vision system to process them naturally by taking advantage of patented DynamicDepth technology.
AR devices currently in prototyping or on the market all face challenges of high cost, uncomfortable size and weight, significant power consumption, and visual phenomena such as Vergence-Accommodation conflict, which cause nausea or fatigue in users. Swave’s unique HXR technology not only solves these problems, but also eliminates the need for the most expensive components, such as waveguides or varifocal lenses, inherently required for existing AR devices.
Swave’s technology has been developed for over a decade and the company currently holds 60 core technology patents. Wave announcement its HXR platform in April 2024, followed by the creation of the world’s first true color holographic display, and recently announced that HXR will be recognized at CES 2025 with a CES Innovation Award.
