IXI, a company which it says it is on a mission to change how the world sees with the first autofocus glasses, has raised 36.5 million USD in Series A funding. The round was led by Plural, with participation from Tesi, byFounders, Heartcore, Eurazeo, FOV Ventures, Tiny Supercomputer and IXI’s existing investors. The new funding will enable IXI to complete the product development of IXI Adaptive Eyewear and kick off the commercial operations.
Founded in 2021 by a pioneering team of wearable technology, optics and industrial design, IXI is disrupting the 200 billion USD eyewear market with dynamic lenses that automatically adapt to the wearer’s eyes. Its technology will provide a wider field of view in a product that works just as nature intended your eyes to work. IXI is creating a new category of eyewear, featuring unique real-time and ultra-low-power eye tracking and state-of-the-art dynamic lens technology. The result is an elegant design that redefines what advanced vision tech can look and feel like.
The company is on a mission to finally break the limits of traditional eyewear; limits which have remained in place for centuries. Traditional progressive lenses force wearers to compromise: narrow fields of view, peripheral distortion, and difficulty seeing clearly at varying distances are common trade-offs. As global populations age, presbyopia diagnoses increase and millions face significant compromises in multi-focal vision, turning an already widespread challenge into a looming global issue.
Niko Eiden, co-founder and CEO of IXI said: “Eyewear is the world’s oldest wearable, rooted in centuries of brilliance across science, design and craftsmanship. That being said, it’s incredible that we haven’t seen more technology leaps, leaving millions of people forced to compromise on how they see the world. The time for change is now. We’re creating a whole new era in vision tech—and we can’t wait to show the world what’s coming. Backed by investors who see the scale of this opportunity, we’re ready to redefine what eyewear can be.”
IXI’s founders, Niko Eiden (CEO) and Ville Miettinen (Chief Algorithm Officer) previously co-founded the premium mixed reality hardware startup, Varjo. Their experience in advanced optics and eye-tracking solutions inspired them to create a new kind of eyewear that truly solves the challenge of vision correction and liberates people from poor eyesight.
Sten Tamkivi, Partner at Plural said: “Niko, Ville and the team’s rare European hardware expertise puts them at the forefront of advanced optics and eye-tracking developments. They’re creating beautiful, literally invisible technology that pioneers a new approach to vision which will finally improve human eyesight once and for all. By backing IXI, we’re not just investing in a company, but in a future where technology revolutionises how we see the world.”
