RealWear, a Vancouver, Washington-based AR startup that develops industrial helmet for workers, closed an $80 million Series B financing round, bringing the company’s total funding to over $100 million. RealWear will use the funds, which are a combination of equity and debt, to continue market expansion and accelerate its platform development.
Related Kopin Unveils World’s First Voice-Controlled AR Headset
RealWear teamed with JPMorgan Chase & Co. to architect an investment syndicate led by Teradyne, Inc. (TER), a global leader in industrial automation, and includes Bose Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures LLC (QCOM), Kopin Corporation (KOPN), and investors from JPMorgan’s (JPM) Private Bank.
From its inception, RealWear has focused on products that are specifically designed for the connected enterprise workforce to improve job satisfaction, productivity and, most importantly, safety. Its industrial hands-free wearable computers enhance, rather than diminish, a worker’s situational awareness while delivering vital information on-demand in the harshest of environments, reports RealWear.
RealWear’s technology is a combination of a small computer running on Android and a camera, speaker, microphones. A tiny screen projects information in front of the wearer’s eye.
The wearer can use the screen to call up information on the fly. Workers use the camera to send an image of what they’re seeing to colleagues elsewhere.
This rugged hardhat is actually a smart headset that functions similarly to the original Google Glass but uses the underlying technology quite differently.
“The augmented reality enterprise market has experienced a great deal of hype, but long-term, real-world solutions have been thin on the ground, said Tom Mainelli, IDCGroup VP of Devices and AR/VR.
“RealWear smartly recognized the need for a no-nonsense head-mounted display and has delivered no-frills products that help frontline workers to get their jobs done more safely and efficiently.”
Related Life-Saving Wearable Devices that Boost Safety for Construction Workers
RealWear Co-Founder and CEO, Andy Lowery, said RealWear used this same pragmatic philosophy in its fund-raising strategy. “Our seed investments came from friends, family, early customers, suppliers and business partners. Their faith carried us to our Series A, led by Columbia Ventures Corporation. CVC’s experience in heavy industry, one of our primary markets, made it a perfect match.”
WT | Wearable Technologies Conference in San Francisco on July 9-10
The most innovative wearables event will be back on July 9-10 in beautiful San Francisco at SEMICON West to celebrate the 34th edition of the WT | Wearable Technologies Conference Series. Topics include data analytics in professional sports, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation with wearables, the future of digital health, medication and adherence, smart patches, workflow optimization and workforce safety and much more – featuring international leaders and experts of the wearables industry´s biggest names including Abbott, Autodesk, Datwyler, Kopin, Maxim Integrated, Multek, NFLPA, Omron, SharkDreams, Qualcomm, and many more. Register now to be part of #WTUS19
