Rokid, an AR glasses maker, headquartered in Hangzhou, China and California, US, has closed a strategic investment from NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited. This investment closes Rokid’s Series C round funding and brings the total of this round to $112 million.
In addition to the investment, the company has revealed a five-year partnership agreement with NetDragon to pursue metaverse opportunities globally. The funds will be used to scale Rokid’s AR glasses as a mass-market portal for immersive metaverse experiences.
End-to-end AR software, hardware and OS
Rokid, a product platform startup, was founded in 2014 by Misa Zhu. It focuses on human-computer interaction technology. Currently, Rokid is working on the research and development of hardware and software products such as AR glasses and the YodaOS operating system.
Through the research of speech recognition, natural language processing, optical display, semiconductor platform, and hardware design, Rokid has developed a range of augmented reality (AR) solutions for consumer and business customers, including Rokid Max AR glasses and Rokid Station.
The company’s glasses can superimpose digital images onto the user’s view of their environment and respond to basic hand gestures. Primarily used for training and industrial uses, Rokid has three models of AR glasses already available. Its AR glasses are already used in nearly 80 countries for gaming, learning, collaboration, and more.
Mr. Misa Zhu, the Founder and CEO of Rokid, said: “We are happy to have NetDragon onboard as not just our investor but also our close strategic partner going forward. As a leading unicorn in the rapidly growing AR industry, Rokid is a product-oriented platform company focusing on human-computer interaction technology with a strong track record in multiple industrial and consumer applications. We look forward to working with NetDragon to expand our opportunities by leveraging their knowledge and know-how in education and gaming, as well as their global sales network. We believe that the combination of NetDragon and Rokid will bring new momentum in product development and breakthrough innovation to the industry.”
Dr. Simon Leung, Group Vice Chairman and Executive Director said, “We are excited with our investment in Rokid as we believe AR will be one of the core technologies to enable the metaverse in the years to come. We see AR becoming one of the key channels for users to interact in the metaverse, as the application of AR is appropriate for longer time usage compared to VR, and hence the number and variety of use cases are broadened significantly with AR, especially in education and gaming. Our partnership with Rokid will open up opportunities for us to design products with a new level of user experience with the application of AR technologies, and at the same time accelerate our go-to-market for our AR-enabled product offerings.”
