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A Chinese smart-glasses maker founded by an Apple veteran has become a unicorn after a funding round with investors including Meituan and Tencent.
Even Realities Technology raised $150 million in the pre-Series B round, giving it a valuation of $1 billion. Company's founder and CEO Will Wang, who worked at Apple from 2016 to 2018 and was involved in the development and mass production of Apple Watch and iPhone, is eyeing the AI wearable market dominated by Meta Platforms.
The company will use the funds to develop its next-generation smart glasses platform, deepen AI integration, scale up global operations and accelerate product innovation, it said Monday.
The Shenzhen-based startup joined a slew of global peers, including Meta Platform, to build advanced gadgets and electronics that bring the benefits of AI to individual users. Alibaba launched Quark AI glasses in February.
Even Realities, which was founded in 2023, launched the Even G2 smart glasses with a bigger display in a lighter frame late last year, alongside the Even R1, a smart ring that controls the display of the G2. The company attributed its vision for Even G2 in part to Wang's stint at Apple.
Unlike Meta's camera-equipped Ray-Ban line, Even Realities' flagship G2 glasses have no camera or recording hardware, while sending messages, navigation, and live translation through a heads-up display embedded in the lenses – as the startup stresses user privacy.
"The future isn't about pulling out a device every time you need information," Wang said. "It's about having the right information available exactly when you need it, while remaining fully present in the world around you."
More than half of Even Realities' user base is located in the U.S., as are approximately 80% of its developers, the company said.
The global smart glasses category surged 167% from a year earlier in the first quarter, shipping 2.25 million units worldwide, according to consultancy firm IDC. Meta led the pack with nearly 70% market share, followed by augmented reality-equipped glasses maker Shenzhen RayNeo Technology and Chinese consumer electronics maker Xiaomi, according to IDC.
Growth was driven by mainstream adoption of display-less smart glasses, led by Meta's Ray-Ban partnership, according to IDC.
Global shipment of smart glasses, including those with display glasses or virtual-reality functions, is expected to more than double to 50 million in 2030.
Even Realities has largely been funded by Chinese-origin venture capital and private equity firms, including CDH Investment, Monolith Management, and CVC Capital. It raised an undisclosed amount from Hong Kong-headquartered Unicorn Capital Partners and Cyanhill Capital in January.
Its domestic rival Rokid is valued at $2.58 billion, according to PitchBook data, after the latest round that raised $522 million in March. RayNeo, incubated by TCL Electronics, is worth $239.9 million, according to PitchBook.
— CNBC's Serenitie Wang contributed to this report.
