Nreal, a maker of augmented reality glasses, has raised $15 million in a funding round led by Gentle Monster parent firm IICombined.
The announcement comes as Nreal doubles down on its consumer AR market focus, in a bid to expand the appeal of AR to more customers.
The funding comes on the heels of a $60 million funding led by Alibaba in March.
The new funding will be used to increase investment in R&D, accelerate the company’s global business expansion to new markets this year including China and strengthen Nreal’s existing partnerships with developers and partners to deliver a wider range of content and experiences to users.
The company is pitching the device as a “portable movie theater.” Nreal wants to lead the AR glasses movement with lightweight glasses.
Nreal has established partnerships with more than 10 carriers and brought its product to six countries to date.
The company has also designed the new glasses for specific applications, such as streaming TV shows and playing mobile games.
The aim is to create an immersive experience in a form factor indistinguishable from daily worn sunglasses.
Nreal Air boasts it has the best display on the market available for any AR device, as it is capable of projecting up to a (simulated) 201-inch virtual display when viewed at a distance of six meters, which is well suited for watching multimedia content.
The glasses will still be tethered to your smartphone, just like the Nreal Light. But the glasses are about a third lighter and are more comfortable to wear than many previous AR glasses.
The latest device has a micro-OLED display.
Nreal Air’s display has a high density of colors, with as many as 49 pixels per degree (PPD).
This ensures that fine details are clearly visible and enhances the realism of the content, Xu said.
And it has a refresh rate of up to 90Hz, and the features don’t drain the phone’s battery.
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