Tekcapital’s Lucyd launches $10m blockchain funding round to develop its augmented reality glasses

Augmented reality glasses may still seem like a thing of the future, but a portfolio company of Aim-listed Tekcapital has today announced a $10m (£7.46m) funding round to manufacture its prototype spectacles.

The gadgets, which look like average glasses, incorporate transparent displays and eye-tracking technology so the wearer sees digital pop ups related to what they are looking at.

Read more: WaveOptics raises £12m to make augmented reality mainstream

The raise, by Tekcapital’s optical technology company Lucyd, will launch on 17 October as a blockchain-based token sale, a method of raising funds which is non-dilutive to Tekcapital’s shareholders.

“We are excited to announce this token sale to accelerate the commercialisation of Lucyd’s leading augmented reality technology and enhance the value of our portfolio company,” said Tekcapital’s executive chairman Clifford Gross.

Tekcapital is an intellectual property investment group, which puts money into university-developed technology to help it become commercially viable.

Read more: Intellectual property company Tekcapital seeking £6m listing

The firm set up Lucyd to license and commercialise a portfolio of 13 optical technology patents, which it bought from the University of Central Florida.

Lucyd has since assembled a team of experts in optics, augmented reality and cryptocurrency and is now at the stage to manufacture the prototypes of its glasses.

According to augmented and virtual reality advisers Digi-Capital, the augmented reality market is forecast to reach around $83bn by 2021.

Lucyd is aiming to pip larger firms, such as Google and Facebook, to the post before augmented reality becomes mainstream and elbow in on the nascent market.

Read more: Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg announces a push for augmented reality with a new developer platform