- ENGO, a Grenoble-based company that makes AR sports glasses, has raised €5.1 million in funding. The round was led by Ventech, Odyssée Venture, and Bpifrance Amorçage Industriel.
- The new funding will help ENGO hire 20 people and continue research to make its heads-up display even smaller. Unlike Meta and Even Realities, ENGO focuses on making its glasses lighter instead of just improving display features.
- ENGO’s glasses weigh under 40 grams, which is about half as much as Meta’s Ray-Ban Display. The company also earns 90% of its revenue from outside France.
ENGO, based in Grenoble, makes augmented reality glasses for runners and cyclists. The company has raised €5.1 million in a funding round led by Ventech, Odyssée Venture, and Bpifrance Amorçage Industriel. Blueprint Partners helped guide ENGO through the process.
ENGO will use the investment to hire 20 new employees in marketing, business development, and engineering. The funds will also support efforts to make the glasses even smaller.
“This fundraising round gives us the means to accelerate our development and solidify our leadership position in the sports smart eyewear segment. We are seeing growing adoption of our solutions by athletes – both amateur and professional – and now aim to take the next step in our international expansion,” says Fabrice Berger Duquene, COO of ENGO.
The French start-up was founded in Grenoble in 2020 by Berger Duquene and Éric Marcellin-Dibon. Marcellin-Dibon also founded MicroOLED, a microdisplay company based in Grenoble, in 2007. ENGO uses MicroOLED’s optical know-how, which sets it apart from most smart-glasses startups that buy their display components rather than designing them in-house.
Smart glasses have quickly gone from a niche product to a crowded part of consumer tech. Grand View Research expects the global market to top $3 billion in 2026 and grow by about 24% each year through 2033. Meta now controls about 69% of shipments through its Ray-Ban Display and Neural Band products, according to prior Tech Funding News coverage of the sector.
Smaller companies like ENGO are looking for alternative ways to compete rather than going head-to-head with the big players.
Focusing on weight reduction over processing power
ENGO was created to help endurance athletes by showing real-time data like pace, heart rate, and power right in front of their eyes using a Micro-OLED display. This way, runners and cyclists can check their stats without glancing at a watch. The glasses weigh under 40 grams and can last up to 20 hours on a single charge.
ENGO’s differentiation has evolved over the past year. Previously, its main advantage was a built-in display, but this is now common. Meta’s Ray-Ban Display, launched in late 2025, features a 600×600 full-colour heads-up display with up to 5,000 nits of brightness. Shenzhen-based Even Realities recently raised $150 million at a $1 billion valuation for its camera-free display glasses.
ENGO’s current advantage is its lightweight design, with frames about half the weight of Meta’s Ray-Ban Display, and its specialised focus on endurance-sport data integration with Garmin and Apple Watch rather than general notifications or camera functions.
“Since ENGO’s inception, we have pursued a simple vision: enabling athletes to stay focused on their performance, not the technology. The lighter, more natural, and more intuitive our eyewear becomes, the closer we get to our goal: making the technology disappear in favour of the athletic experience,” adds Marcellin-Dibon.
Investment details and key backers
Ventech led the funding round. This Paris-based venture firm has invested in more than 320 companies since 1998, including Vestiaire Collective, and has exited over 180 investments, such as Believe and Withings. Ventech also previously invested in ENGO’s sister company, MicroOLED.
Odyssée Venture, a French growth-equity firm that has backed nearly 200 companies since 1999, also joined the round, along with Bpifrance Amorçage Industriel. This €50 million fund, launched by the French public investment bank in 2023, supports industrial startups in France. Its usual investment size of €500,000 to €2 million fits ENGO’s funding round.
ENGO says that 90% of its revenue now comes from outside France, with half of that coming from the United States.
It’s still unclear whether ENGO’s focus on lightweight, sport-specific glasses will succeed as Meta and well-funded Chinese companies develop similar products. For now, ENGO stands out by offering the lightest glasses for athletes, something bigger competitors can’t easily copy just by adding new features.
