Beijing-headquartered consumer Augmented reality (AR) glasses XREAL has snapped up $60 million in a strategic financing round, bringing the firm’s total capital raised to $300 million, according to a press release.
The firm, which counts the likes of Chinese tech giant Alibaba, short video platform Kuaishou, and venture capital firm HongShan (previously known as Sequoia Capital China) among its backers, did not divulge the investor details.
The proceeds will be used for R&D and factory expansion, as the AR glasses maker targets to ramp up production of its AR glasses in 2025.
The investment comes at a time when the AR/smart glasses vertical remained active in China despite the market downturn faced by the virtual reality (VR) market. The AR glasses market booked a 60% year-over-year (YoY) growth in Q3 2023, according to data from Counterpoint Research.
Since its inception in 2017, XREAL has so far shipped 350,000 AR glasses, as of early January. It recently launched XREAL Air 2 Ultra, which serves as a more affordable challenger of devices like Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest 3.
The strategic round comes two weeks after AR glasses developer Rokid raised 500 million yuan ($70.6 million) in a fresh funding round led by Hefei’s municipal government on January 9.