Shenzhen-based smart glasses firm INMO announced this week that it has secured an undisclosed sum in a series A funding round that was led by Matrix Partners and supported by Unity Ventures, Junsan Capital, as well as pre-existing shareholders.
In addition, in early February the augmented reality (AR) firm secured funding from Yilai Investment and 37 Interactive Entertainment.
The smart glasses vendor will use the secured capital to enable the mass production the ‘INMO Air’ consumer-grade AR wearables and to enhance the firm’s international brand awareness.
Zuo Lingye of Matrix Partners explained the potential of INMO hardware, in regards to emerging technologies and the extended reality (XR) space:
Matrix Partner has been paying attention to the upstream and downstream of the XR industry chain for a long time. We hope to work with INMO to find more consumer-oriented innovation opportunities under the concept of ‘meta universe’ [Metaverse]
News comes after, the Chinese tech startup took to Indigogo to raise funds and it gained roughly £225,144 by doing so, dwarfing INMO’s initial £9,327 goal.
According to reports, the firm estimates that it’ll release the INMO Air smart glasses in December of this year and will price units at roughly £300. Although, no updates from the firm confirm a solid release date for backers or the general public.
Powering INMO Smart Glasses
Founded in 2020, INMO built itself up by hiring ex-telecoms employees from firms such as Huawei and Xiaomi to harness the experience of those involved in developing mobile phones and smart wearables.
Being a pair of AR smart glasses means that the hardware can overlay immersive and interactive experiences on top of real-world environments.
The INMO Air smart glasses are incredibly lightweight at less than 80g and noticeably powerful for its size, with roughly four hours worth of battery life – standby-mode can last up to 72 hours.
Additionally, INMO is integrating a high-definition camera, GPS capabilities, and media playback for streaming.
Also, INMO is using various intuitive input methods that improves user navigation and hardware accessiblity. INMO achieves this by including support for head, touch, and voice inputs to enable hands-free interaction.
The start-up has debuted its open-source software developer kit (SDK) and this gives AR developers a strong toolkit that encourages hardware-unique content or immersive applications.
News comes after, firms such as Kopin Corp and DigiLens have created affordable AR hardware solutions.
In addition, Meta tested the waters by partnering with Rayban earlier this year, to debut a pair of AR-lite designer smart glasses. To add, the Menlo-Park firm will be entering the AR market again next year with the upcoming Project: Nazare.
