Swave Photonics raises $28.3M for 3D holographic smartglasses and displays

Swave Photonics, a holographic display company, has raised $28.27 million in funding as it prepares components for AI-powered smartglasses and heads-up displays.

Swave said the Series A investment will catalyze the advancement of its Holographic eXtended Reality (HXR) platform, enabling a reality-first user experience for AI-powered augmented reality (AR) smartglasses and heads-up displays. The company will show its tech at CES 2025.

The funding round was co-led by investors Imec.xpand and SFPIM Relaunch, with participation from new investors EIC Fund, IAG Capital Partners, and Murata Electronics North America, as well as existing investors Qbic Fund, PMV, Imec, and Luminate.

Leuven, Belgium-based Swave previously raised a $10.47 million seed round in 2023, which propelled the launch of Swave’s HXR technology, as well as the expansion of Swave’s team, which has veterans in photonics and semiconductors.

“This round will accelerate Swave’s product introductions as we continue to solve the challenges of today’s AR experiences through true holography,” said Mike Noonen, Swave CEO, in a statement. “We are thrilled with continued support from our existing investors and our new investors. They recognize that Swave uniquely brings together semiconductor, holographic and AI technologies in a way that will deliver cost-effective and truly useful solutions.”

“AR glasses are set to become the primary interface for AI-powered spatial computing and other applications, and Swave is uniquely positioned to enable this future” said Theo Marescaux, Swave and chief product officer, in a statement. “We are co-designing every element—from our holographic SLMs with cutting-edge nano-pixels, to real-time compute chips, light engines, and AR combiners—delivering the most advanced and integrated solution yet.”

“With Swave’s seed funding, we successfully built our team, proved the capabilities of the technology, and completed prototype designs”, said Dmitri Choutov, COO, in a statement. “With Series A funding secured and silicon running at our partner fabs, we are on track to introduce product development kits and soon thereafter production devices.”

Swave’s HXR technology uses what it calls the “world’s smallest pixel” to shape light and sculpt high-quality 3D holographic images that create a reality-first user experience, where digital information interacts and adapts to the user’s surroundings. The images allow for the human vision system to process them naturally leveraging patented DynamicDepth technology.

AR devices currently being prototyped or on the market are all faced with challenges of high cost, uncomfortable size and weight, significant power usage, and visual phenomena like Vergence-Accomodation Conflict, which cause nausea or fatigue for users. Swave’s unique HXR technology not only solves these issues, but also eliminates the need for the most costly components, such as waveguides or varifocal lenses, inherently required for existing AR devices. 

Swave’s technology has been developed for over a decade and the company currently holds 60 core technology patents. Swave announced its HXR platform in April 2024, followed by the achievement of the world’s first true color holographic display, and recently announced that HXR will be recognized at CES 2025 with a CES Innovation Award.