China’s telecoms giants bet on AR smart glasses with major investment in RayNeo
The investment comes as RayNeo debuts the world’s first consumer AR glasses integrated with eSIM and 4G connectivity at CES
Chinese smart glasses maker RayNeo on Monday said it secured funding from the country’s major state telecommunications operators, as eyewear emerges as the next gadget with the ability to access artificial intelligence services along with smartphones.
Investors included Unicom Innovation Capital, a subsidiary of China Unicom, and CM Beijing Fund and CM Shanghai Fund, the investment arms of China Mobile. The move “marks the first strategic entry of China’s major telecommunications operators into the smart glasses sector”, RayNeo said in a statement.
The telecoms operators would provide critical resources in “eSIM management, 5G-Advanced networks and content partnerships” to fuel RayNeo’s product development by “enabling tighter integration of communication capabilities and cloud services”, the statement said.
RayNeo did not disclose the size of the funding, but Chinese media reported that the latest round, which included Citic Securities-owned Goldstone Investment, has exceeded 1 billion yuan (US$143 million).