PixelOptics, a US-based company for electronic-focusing spectacles, has raised $35m in a round led by New York-listed medical device maker Safeguard Scientifics.
Alongside Safeguard in the round was venture capital firms Delphi Ventures, Carlyle Group, Longitude Capital and Stark Investments.
On top of the $35m in equity, Horizon Technology Finance lent $10m of venture debt.
PixelOptics’ other investors include Japan-based electronics company Panasonic, which starting making its products last year with investment from Patrick Suel at its US-based corporate venturing unit in 2008, and angel network Science Angels.
PixelOptics’ EmPower product (pictured) was launched last month and changes optical power focus without moving parts or a sound.
Ronald Blum, Pixel’s executive president and formerly at Johnson & Johnson’s spectacle lens group, said: "We anticipate launching EmPower across North America and beginning a regional rollout in Europe within the next 12 months. Following this, we expect to start selling EmPower in Asia within 24 months."
Gary Kurtzman, managing director in the life sciences group at Safeguard Scientifics, added: "The Pixel team has developed a disruptive technology with EmPower that will revolutionize the standard of care for eyeglass wearers, specifically those with presbyopia. I have been wearing EmPower every day since we began our due diligence process and can’t imagine going back to standard progressive lenses."
Kurtzman, along with Stephen Zarilli, chief financial officer at Safeguard Scientifics, will join Pixel’s board.
In 1999 e-Vision began the development of electronic eyeglasses and exclusively and globally licensed its intellectual property to Pixel in 2005. Pixel raised its previous $30m round in October 2008.