Swave Photonics announced the close of a €27 million ($28.27 million) Series A funding round co-led by imec.xpand and SFPIM Relaunch. Additional participants included the EIC Fund, IAG Capital Partners, and Murata Electronics North America, Inc., as well as existing investors Qbic Fund, PMV, imec, and Luminate. The company had previously raised €10 million ($10.47 million) in a seed round in 2023.
Swave CEO Mike Noonen said the new funding will drive the company’s product introductions as it continues working to solve contemporary AR limitations through holography. The company is co-designing every element of the AR solution, from the holographic spatial light modulators to real-time compute chips, light engines, and AR combiners. The company confirmed the silicon is in production at partner fabs as the company is preparing to introduce product development kits and, soon after, commercial devices.
The technology has been developed over the past decade, supported by a portfolio of 60 patents. Swave first unveiled its HXR platform in April 2024 and later demonstrated what it describes as the world’s first true color holographic display. The company’s work has been recognized with a CES Innovation Award, and the Swave team will be at CES 2025.
Thought about Swave’s holographic technology for 10 seconds
Swave’s Holographic eXtended Reality platform uses what the company describes as the world’s smallest pixel to form high-quality 3D holographic images that interact naturally with the user’s surroundings. This is achieved through patented DynamicDepth technology, which allows the human visual system to process the images without the discomfort or fatigue often caused by existing AR displays. The company’s approach eliminates reliance on costly hardware such as waveguides or varifocal lenses, thereby reducing both power demands and overall device size. According to Swave, this method addresses longstanding limitations in augmented reality headsets and smartglasses, including excessive weight, high component costs, and user nausea linked to vergence-accommodation conflict.
