Belgium and California-headquartered Swave Photonics, a forerunner in the implementation of true holography for augmented reality (AR), has successfully closed a seed round expansion with an additional investment of €3 million. With this round, the total investment secured by the company accounts for €10 million.
Investment to bolster growth
The round saw reinvestment from existing investors – imec.xpand (which backed Pharrowtech and PhotonDelta), Flanders Future Techfund (FFTF), and QBIC. Joining these investors are new US-based investors Acequia Capital, and Luminate NY, the world’s only optics, photonics, and imaging accelerator. This seed round positions Swave well to execute its augmented reality roadmap and engage future customers, partners, and investors interested in driving true holography for spatial computing.
Luminate NY’s investment stems from Swave’s recent selection as a finalist in Luminate NY’s accelerator program and competition. This accolade complements Swave’s first-place win at the 2023 SPIE Photonics West Startup Challenge and recognition as a finalist in the 2023 AWE USA Startup to Watch competition.
With this investment, Swave will continue its growth, expand its management and engineering teams, and hire in key areas.
“We are deeply gratified by the bolstered commitment of our current investors and are excited to welcome Acequia Capital and Luminate NY to the Swave family,” said Mike Noonen, CEO of Swave Photonics. “This collective vote of confidence in our groundbreaking technology and dedicated team underlines our commitment to revolutionise augmented reality through true holography.”
“We are exceptionally proud of the progress the team at Swave Photonics has made to date,” said Pieter Vorenkamp, Chairman of Swave Photonics and a distinguished leader in emerging technology operations. “The innovative holographic technology developed by Swave is the result of their technical leadership and shared dedication to driving forward the boundaries of what’s possible.”
Holographic eXtended Reality Technology
Founded by Theodore Marescaux and Dimitri Choutov in 2021, Swave Photonics is an industry-shaping fabless semiconductor company that conceives, designs, and markets holographic solutions deploying proprietary diffractive photonics and software. Its mission is to breathe life into augmented reality, enabling manufacturers of mobile phones and displays, along with content creators, to revolutionise the visualisation and communication markets with immersive, ultra-high-resolution, lifelike, true holographic displays.
Swave’s Holographic eXtended Reality (HXR) technology represents the epitome of display technology, delivering high-resolution 3D images that blur the boundary between reality and illusion. This cutting-edge technology enables the presentation of holographic images without the usual challenges of focal depth and eye tracking. Moreover, HXR stands out for its ability to be produced using standard CMOS technology, ensuring scalability and cost-effectiveness in manufacturing.
HXR technology holds the potential to revolutionise holographic glasses and headsets, providing users with immersive spatial augmented reality (AR) experiences characterised by exceptional resolution, precise depth of focus, and expansive viewing angles ranging from 180 degrees to 360 degrees. These experiences eliminate the discomfort commonly associated with traditional headsets.
Powered by HXR’s gigapixel technology, applications utilising this innovation can nearly pass the visual Turing test, creating virtual reality experiences that are incredibly life-like and indistinguishable from real-world images.
