Today, augmented reality (AR) smart glasses vendor Nreal announced the completion of a series C+ round of funding worth $60 million USD, securing the Chinese firm roughly $200 million over the past twelve months.
The Yuhang District-based Alibaba Group is leading the series C+ funding round, joining Nreal’s esteemed list of investors, including Kuaishou, Sequoia China, and Hillhouse.
The secured capital allows Nreal to accelerate global expansion into new markets and local Chinese growth following additional recent expansion success.
The news comes after Nreal Air smart glasses debuted in Japan in February, as well as the Nreal Light announced in US markets in November 2021. Additionally, the capital enables Nreal to strengthen its relationships with developers and partners and enhance content delivered to customers.
The news follows developments from the Chinese firm, namely after it struggled to enter US markets last year amid legal trouble with Epic Games, which claimed the “Nreal” and “Unreal” trademarks were too similar.
Last year, Nreal revealed it would become a publicly-traded company as it targeted markets in Europe and North America.
Previously, Nreal made its products available in South Korea, Japan, and Spain as it distributes its smart glasses to new markets and issues its Nreal Light Development Kit globally. In September 2021, the XR enterprise secured roughly $100 million to assist its global expansion goals.
More than a Consumer Product
This month, Nreal also partnered with technology giant Microsoft to develop an AR solution that assists low-vision children with locating and identifying others.
The pair created PeopleLens, a head-mounted device (HMD) that sits just above a wearer’s eyes and uses spatial audio to create a ‘People Map’ to read the names of individuals aloud when a child looks at them.
Nreal and Microsoft researchers are using an artificial intelligence (AI) platform to locate, identify, track, and capture the eye gaze of nearby peers and translate this information to a visually-impaired child.
Microsoft built the PeopleLens HMD using Nreal Light AR smart glasses. Originally unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2019, Nreal Light has a 52-degree field of view (FOV) and a 60Hz refresh rate. It also requires a connection to a smartphone to offload processing power and assist with user navigation.
In December 2021, Nreal and partners NIO developed the first pair of AR smart glasses designed specifically for electric transportation. The hardware creates a virtual cockpit around a driver and is expected to launch later this year.
Nreal Products
Nreal also distributes the Air smart glasses, an AR-lite experience that has a lower 46-degree FOV, higher 90Hz refresh rate, and requires a connection to an off-board computing device.
However, the device is lighter at 77 grams and allows users to create virtual screens up to 201 inches, improving its wearability when streaming media for prolonged periods.
Similarly, rival firm HTC VIVE unveiled its Flow virtual reality (VR) goggles last year, a lightweight device allowing users to incorporate immersive wellness applications into their daily routines via the VIVEPORT digital storefront.
HTC’s products have seen both consumer and enterprise vertical market adoption. HTC VIVE partnered with XRHealth, a significant healthcare Metaverse solution provider, to develop its Focus 3 Health and Flow Health solutions that allow users to enter a virtual therapy room to track treatment progress, targets, and outcomes.
