AAA WaveOptics makes a splash with $26m

WaveOptics makes a splash with $26m

UK-based augmented reality technology (AR) developer WaveOptics secured $26m today in a funding round featuring industrial product maker Robert Bosch and electronics producer Goertek.

Octopus Ventures led the round, which included fellow venture capital firm Gobi Partners, asset manager Optimas Capital Partners and commercialisation firm IP Group. Bosch invested through corporate venturing arm Robert Bosch Venture Capital (RBVC).

Founded in 2014, WaveOptics produces optical components known as diffractive waveguides for AR devices. The transparent waveguides offer full colour, near-eye AR displays that can overlay high-resolution images on a user’s field of vision.

The capital will help WaveOptics scale its business domestically and internationally as it looks to create a manufacturing supply chain capable of satisfying orders from customers in the US and Asia. It will also open an office in Beijing next year.

IP Group contributed $4.7m and now owns a 19.9% stake in WaveOptics valued at $19.2m, giving the company a valuation of approximately $96m.

WaveOptics is in advanced discussions with potential additional investors for a second close of the round, but a target size or timeline have not been revealed. Goertek’s investment builds on a manufacturing partnership it agreed with WaveOptics last month to facilitate waveguide production on a global scale.

Touchstone Innovations, the commercialisation firm now owned by IP Group, invested $4m in a $15.7m round for WaveOptics in July 2017 that also featured RBVC, Octopus Ventures and Gobi Partners.

WaveOptics had raised a multi-million-pound sum (£1m = $1.5m at contemporary rates) in a December 2015 round led by Touchstone and backed by RBVC, AR app developer Blippar, Octopus Ventures and various angel investors. Blippar had already invested an undisclosed sum in WaveOptics six months earlier.

Image courtesy of WaveOptics Ltd. The original version of this article appeared on our sister site, Global University Venturing.

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