DigiLens Raises $22 Million to Revolutionize the Technology Behind Mixed Reality

DigiLens has raised $22 million. The Series B round hails from Sony, Foxconn, Continental and Panasonic, along with venture investors Alsop Louie Partners, Bold Capital, Nautilus Venture Partners and Dolby Family Ventures, as well as others.

DigiLens, which makes waveguide diffractive optical technology and nanomaterials for augmented and virtual reality, says it will use the influx of capital to bring to market several augmented reality displays and sensors for enterprise, consumer and transportation applications.

“The next generation display technology will be glass. Data on glass is a critical capability for augmented and mixed reality applications such as gaming, navigation, education, medical and military,” said Gilman Louie, Founder and Managing Director of Alsop Louie Partners and lead investor.

“Augmented reality is a challenge, in part, because the devices are restrained by the laws of physics and not Moore’s Law. We need to break the manufacturing price barrier,” said Dr. G. Chen, CTO at Foxconn. “With DigiLens waveguide diffractive optics, they seem to have overcome most nagging technical problems and we see a very bright future for them.”

DigiLens waveguide optics platform will allow many OEM’s to finally access the “eyeglass thin” waveguide component technology for AR applications. The company has been steadily developing the requisite optical materials and recordation processes to manufacture precision diffractive optics by photographically printing (not etching) the nanostructures. DigiLens has undertaken an extensive development process funded over many years from military research grants and corporate R&D support.

https://borndigital.com/2017/01/11/overview-state-of-virtual-reality