In July 2, 2019 – RealWear, Inc. has announced a USD $80 million Series B financing round. RealWear stated that the company will use the funds, which are a combination of equity and debt, to continue market expansion and accelerate its platform development. RealWear teamed with JPMorgan Chase & Co. to architect an investment syndicate led by Teradyne, Inc., and includes Bose Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures LLC, Kopin Corporation, and investors from JPMorgan’s Private Bank.
RealWear has focused on products that are specifically designed for the connected enterprise workforce to improve job satisfaction, productivity and safety. Its industrial hands-free wearable computers are designed to enhance a worker’s situational awareness while delivering vital information on-demand.
According to the company, RealWear’s achievements in the last 18 months include:
- 15,000+ HMT systems shipped
- 1,300+ enterprise customers globally
- 120+ workforce software applications
Tom Mainelli, IDCGroup VP of Devices and AR/VR, commented: “The augmented reality enterprise market has experienced a great deal of hype, but long-term, real-world solutions have been thin on the ground.” Mainelli added, “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.”
RealWear Co-Founder and CEO, Andy Lowery, said that 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.” Lowery continued, “It was critical that RealWear’s new investors be business and technology leaders. Teradyne, Bose Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures and Kopin fit that bill.”
Mark Jagiela, Teradyne CEO and President, said:‘‘RealWear has created a powerful platform that aligns with our vision for a safer, more productive work environment powered by easy-to-use, rapid ROI automation solutions.” He added, ‘‘RealWear’s strategy to leverage the power of advanced technologies like Augmented Reality to assist workers across a wide range of tasks has many parallels with Teradyne’s industrial automation strategy and we look forward to helping RealWear continue their exciting growth.’’
Also commenting on the announcement was Richard Tapalaga, Director, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Investment Director at Qualcomm Ventures: “Qualcomm Ventures invests in companies that drive innovation and impact across industries. RealWear has experienced strong growth and is well-positioned to become a leading platform for connected workers everywhere”. Tapalaga added, “We are excited to invest in RealWear as we believe its unique platform will help drive value to the entire IoT ecosystem”.
RealWear’s Series A lead, CVC, and many early seed investors have taken this opportunity to increase their investments in RealWear. Lowery concluded, “The continued support of our ecosystem is tremendously gratifying for the entire RealWear team.”
Image credit: RealWear
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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.