Xpanceo, a deep tech startup, raises $40M to focus on smart contact lenses. The fact that smartphone sales have had their worst quarterly performance in over a decade raises two significant considerations. Have the most recent models finally exhausted the market with their little upgrades? What will the following form factor (and function) be, if they have? One potential response to that issue is computing devices in the form of smart contact lenses, which is what deep tech firm Xpanceo is pursuing with the help of $40 million in investment from a single investor, Opportunity Ventures in Hong Kong.
The company’s goal is to simplify technology, and it thinks the best way to achieve this is to make it more seamless and integrated into our daily lives. Roman Axelrod, the company’s CEO, physicist, and material scientist Valentyn S. Volkov, formed the venture. “All current computers will be obsolete [because] they’re not interchangeable,” Axelrod claimed. “Gadgets have made us slaves.”
Axelrod stated in an interview that Xpanceo’s modest goal is to “merge all the gadgets into one, to provide humanity with a gadget with an infinite screen.” This goal will be accomplished by emphasizing new materials, moving away from silicon-based processing, and utilizing new methods of utilizing optoelectronics. Developing the next generation of computers is our goal.
Xpanceo was bootstrapped up to its founding in 2021, headquartered in Dubai. Until now, the team’s more than 50 scientists and engineers have mostly worked on various lens prototypes and the extensive effort that goes into them. For instance, the switch from silicon to optoelectronics has created a new need for materials that can produce and read light at ever-smaller sizes, according to Volkov. The business has compared its pursuit of novel contact lens materials to advances in 2D materials like graphene.
In an interview, Volkov remarked, “We have kind of carved out our own niche [in 2D materials] and now we use this knowledge as a backbone for our contact lens prototypes.”
Additionally, the business has created an AI platform to aid in developing its frameworks. It claims that it will employ “neural interfacing” to provide users of its lenses complete control over programs without requiring them to make “awkward” eye motions or use additional controls. (For example, with certain prototypes of other smart or linked glasses, users can change functionalities by lowering their eyelids.)
Its prototypes initially span three usage groups. These include a lens for 3D and night vision, a measurement and accuracy lens (for use, for instance, in a clinical setting), and a holographic lens for augmented reality experiences. Xpanceo will use the funds to integrate these features into a single lens, which it expects to be finished by 2025 or 2026.
Volkov stated that the business is working on 24 related patent applications. The concept of a smart contact lens is not new, and some could even argue that, given the lengthy time frame necessary, it is not the best time to explore smart contacts.
The largest firm concentrating on the form factor, Mojo Vision, changed course earlier this year to create micro-LED panels for headsets and other tiny screens. At the time, it listed difficult market circumstances, including the need for funding, as one justification for delaying its ambitions for smart contacts. It made an enlarged Series A announcement last week to complete its shift.
In the past, Google had ambitious intentions for smart contacts, which it was creating through its Verily moonshot. A smart contact lens to handle presbyopia (the age-related problem where an eye cannot adjust focus as quickly between close and far objects) was announced in 2020, after which the project was simplified. At the time, the business declared, “Verily is now planning to take the accommodating contact lens into the next phase of development.”
Smart contact lenses have also been connected to Apple, but more hazily. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Apple lenses will arrive, but not until around 2030, in a research paper he authored on the company’s plans for 2021. It has, in the meanwhile, submitted several patent filings to cover basics in the region, as patent watchers have seen.
Not to be outdone, the market leader in smartphones, Samsung, has several patents in this area, including this one that describes how a lens might “harvest energy” to function.
However, there have been certain developments that appear to be positive signs of movement.
Singaporean researchers are exploring the potential of harnessing “human tears” to power smart contacts. And even if it’s not a contact lens, there’s still a desire to discover what may be the next big thing: With its innovative “pin” concept, Humane is drawing a lot of potential investors.
The firm was given a chance with Opportunity Venture since Xpanceo has advanced on more constrained prototypes.
We took the lead in this investment round to demonstrate that Xpanceo has the ambition and the ability to carry out its product vision. According to Philip Ma, managing director of the venture capital firm, “Xpanceo now has all the resources needed to advance their R&D and product design, and do it even faster.” “Opportunity Venture (Asia) sees the potential in XPANCEO to define the next generation of computing and to become a major player in the world of personal tech in the post-smartphone era.”
Axelrod and Volkov are aware of their industry’s intense competition, the state of the market, and the fact that they are operating in some of deep tech’s most specialized areas. But it seems as though they are sowing with their eyes open. They probably have some history that taught them to be patient and play the long game.
With much humor, Axelrod refers to his co-founder and himself as “typical Russians.”
Despite having his Ph.D. from Aalborg University in Denmark most recently, Volkov was originally born in Ukraine and attended university in Moscow. Before Xpanceo began, he was a professor with affiliations with Moscow-based and local academic institutions. The Axelrod family originally hails from Kazakhstan. However, many of them settled in Israel. The founder of Xpanceo, a pricey hardware business in the much more expensive field of deep tech, Axelrod, who also holds Israeli citizenship, formerly resided in Moscow and had several companies and exits there.
(These exits included the esports business ESforce Holding, the artificial intelligence robotics venture Orbita Group, and the machine vision startup Cognitive Technologies Group, all of which were sold to Russian purchasers and are thus currently subject to sanctions.)
Regarding the Ukraine war and other political developments that preceded it, Axelrod remarked, “We decided to relocate Xpanceo long before the worst.”
Although Dubai may seem like an unexpected destination for a deep tech business, the choice to relocate there is not all that rare; the city has recently gained a reputation for affluent Russians, although it had already been drawing other Russians before that. As a result, there was a population to draw from and live among. According to Axelrod, Dubai is one of the world’s most accepting cities. It’s a wonderful location to be in.
