Industry News
Smart Contact Lens Startup Raises Additional Funding
US startup Mojo Vision announces that it has raised more than US$51 million in a Series B-1 investment round to propel the development of the first true smart contact lens, Mojo Lens. This new round brings Mojo Vision’s total funding to date to more than US$159 million.
Mojo Vision’s latest round of funding was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) with participation from top strategic investors and venture firms, including Gradient Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Liberty Global Ventures, Struck Capital, Dolby Family Ventures, Motorola Solutions Venture Capital, Fusion Fund, Intellectus Partners, KDDI Open Innovation Fund, Numbase Group, InFocus Capital Partners, and others.
Mojo also announced that Greg Papadopoulos, PhD, venture partner at NEA, will join its board of directors. Papadopoulos and NEA co-led the seed round in Mojo Vision along with CEO and co-founder Drew Perkins.
Papadopoulos has more than 30 years of experience in the technology industry and academia. Prior to NEA, Papadopoulos was EVP and CTO of Sun Microsystems and before Sun, he was an Associate Professor of EECS at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has also helped found a number of companies and was an engineer with HP and Honeywell. Papadopoulos is a relentless advocate for diversity in engineering and a supporter of open development models that stimulate communication, inclusiveness and innovation.
In January, Mojo announced that it is in the process of building the world’s first true smart contact lens, called Mojo Lens. Mojo Lens is a contact lens with a built-in display that is designed to give people useful and timely information without forcing them to look down at a screen or lose focus on the people and the world around them. Mojo calls this eyes-up experience Invisible Computing, a platform that enables information to be instantaneous, unobtrusive, and available hands-free, allowing people to interact with each other more freely and genuinely.
“The unveiling of the details of our product development earlier this year has generated increased excitement and momentum around the potential of Mojo Lens,” said Perkins. “This new round of funding brings more support and capital from strategic investors and companies to help us continue our breakthrough technology development. It gets us closer to bringing the benefits of Mojo Lens to people with vision impairments, to enterprises and eventually, consumers.”
The company is planning an early application of Mojo Lens to help people who live with vision impairment. By using enhanced image overlays, this application is designed to serve as a visual aid, providing real-time contrast and scene enhancement that will make navigation, obstacle avoidance, and personal interactions easier. Mojo is actively working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) through its Breakthrough Device Program, a voluntary program designed to provide safe and timely access to medical devices that can help treat irreversibly debilitating diseases or conditions.
“NEA has been with Mojo since the beginning, sharing the vision to build and bring to market the first true smart contact lens,” said Papadopoulos. “The potential applications of this innovative technology could fundamentally change the way we work and view our world as well as improve the quality of life for people with vision impairment. This is a tremendously exciting opportunity and I’m humbled to be joining the board of directors and to continue partnering with the talented team at Mojo.”
Mojo Lens is currently in the research and development phase and is not available for sale anywhere in the world.
