IXI, a company on a mission to change how the world sees with the first autofocus glasses, announced it has raised $36.5 million in Series A funding. The funding round was led by Plural, with participation from Tesi, byFounders, Heartcore, Eurazeo, FOV Ventures, Tiny Supercomputer and IXI’s existing investors, including Maki.vc, First Fellow, Amazon Alexa Fund, firstminutecapital, John Lindfors, Illusian, and Bragiel Brothers.
Eyewear Market: Launched in 2021 by a pioneering team of wearable technology, optics and industrial design, IXI is transforming the $200 billion eyewear market with dynamic lenses that automatically adapt to the wearer’s eyes.
This technology will offer a wider field of view in a product that works just as nature intended your eyes to work. IXI is also creating a new eyewear category, featuring unique real-time and ultra-low-power eye tracking and dynamic lens technology. The result is a design that transforms what advanced vision tech can look and feel like.
Company goals: The company is on a mission to break the limits of traditional eyewear; limits that have remained in place for centuries. And traditional progressive lenses force wearers to compromise: narrow fields of view, peripheral distortion, and difficulty seeing clearly at varying distances are common trade-offs. With the global population’s age, presbyopia (or being presbyopic), diagnoses increase, and millions face significant compromises in multi-focal vision, turning an already widespread challenge into a major global issue.
Company founders: IXI’s founders, Niko Eiden (CEO) and Ville Miettinen (Chief Algorithm Officer) had previously co-founded the premium mixed reality hardware startup Varjo. And their experience in advanced optics and eye-tracking solutions inspired them to create a new kind of eyewear that truly solves the challenge of vision correction and liberates people from poor eyesight.
What the funding will be used for: This new funding will enable IXI to complete the product development of IXI Adaptive Eyewear and kick off the commercial operations.
KEY QUOTES:
“Eyewear is the world’s oldest wearable, rooted in centuries of brilliance across science, design and craftsmanship. That being said, it’s incredible that we haven’t seen more technology leaps, leaving millions of people forced to compromise on how they see the world. The time for change is now. We’re creating a whole new era in vision tech—and we can’t wait to show the world what’s coming. Backed by investors who see the scale of this opportunity, we’re ready to redefine what eyewear can be.”
Niko Eiden, co-founder and CEO of IXI
“Niko, Ville and the team’s rare European hardware expertise puts them at the forefront of advanced optics and eye-tracking developments. They’re creating beautiful, literally invisible technology that pioneers a new approach to vision which will finally improve human eyesight once and for all. By backing IXI, we’re not just investing in a company, but in a future where technology revolutionises how we see the world.”
Sten Tamkivi, Partner at Plural
