Swave Photonics secures €10M in seed funding to develop its holographic AR technology

In Augmented Reality News 

June 22, 2023 – Swave Photonics, a fabless semiconductor company and provider of holographic technology for augmented reality (AR), has today announced the successful closure of its seed round expansion, with the additional investment of EUR €3 million. This brings the total funds raised by Swave to EUR €10 million, according to the company.

Swave’s ‘Holographic eXtended Reality’ (HXR) technology provides high-resolution 3D images that remove some of the challenges associated with focal depth and eye tracking. As a result, Swave’s HXR technology is capable of powering holographic glasses and headsets, offering immersive spatial AR experiences with clear resolution, perfect depth of focus, and 180-degree to 360-degree viewing angles, without some of the conventional discomforts associated with traditional headsets, according to the company.

Swave added that applications powered by its HXR gigapixel technology will be capable of passing the visual Turing test, making virtual reality nearly indistinguishable from real-world images.

Existing investors imec.xpand, a venture capital fund centered around nanotechnology innovation, Flanders Future Techfund (FFTF), a Belgian/Flemish public investment fund, and QBIC, a Belgian inter-university venture capital fund took place in the round. Additional investors were Acequia Capital, a venture investment firm based in Seattle, WA, and Luminate NY, an optics, photonics, and imaging accelerator based in Rochester, NY.

“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 revolutionize augmented reality through true holography.”

Swave stated that the seed funding positions the company well to “execute on its augmented reality roadmap and engage future customers, partners and investors interested in driving true holography for spatial computing.”

The company noted that the investment from Luminate NY stems from Swave’s recent selection as a finalist in Luminate NY’s accelerator program and competition—an accolade that complements Swave’s first place win at the 2023 SPIE Photonics West Startup Challenge, as well as recognition as a finalist in the 2023 AWE USA Startup to Watch competition.

“We are exceptionally proud of the progress the team at Swave Photonics has made to date,” said Pieter Vorenkamp, Chairman of Swave Photonics. “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. I am confident this technical prowess will soon translate into operational excellence as we transition the technology into products, enabling mass-volume augmented reality applications. The future of holography lies in the hands of this outstanding team, and we’re excited to be a part of this journey.”

For more information on Swave Photonics and its holographic technology, and to see where the company is hiring as it expands its management and engineering teams, please visit Swave’s website.

Image credit: Swave Photonics

About the author

Sam Sprigg

Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.