Augmented reality contact lens developer Mojo Vision has partnered with Adidas and several other fitness brands to bring its data-tracking eye lens into the consumer market. The company also announced $45 million in new funding to bring its total investment to $205 million.
Through its ongoing consumer market analysis, Mojo Vision said it has “identified an opportunity in the wearables market to deliver performance data and real-time stats to data-conscious athletes like runners, cyclists, gym users, golfers, and more through Mojo Lens’ hands-free, eye-controlled user interface.”
Mojo Vision engages in several strategic partnerships with fitness brands to address athletes’ and sports enthusiasts’ unmet performance data needs. The company’s initial partnerships include Adidas Running (running/training), Trailforks (cycling, hiking/outdoors), Wearable X (yoga), Slopes (snow sports), and 18Birdies (golf). Through these strategic partnerships and the brand marketing that the companies offer, Mojo Vision said it would invest in “additional smart contact lens interfaces and experiences to understand and improve the delivery of data for athletes of varying skill levels and abilities.”
“We are making important progress in developing our smart contact lens technology, and we continue to research and identify new market potential for this groundbreaking platform. Our partnerships with these leading brands will give us valuable insights into user behavior in the sports and fitness market. The goal is for these collaborations to deliver athletes an entirely new form factor with performance data that is more accessible and useful at the moment,” said Steve Sinclair, SVP, product and marketing, Mojo Vision.
Mojo Vision said recent research from the International Data Corporation (IDC) shows global wearables shipments grew 32.3 percent year-over-year from 2020/21. This growth in the wearable tech market is led by companies that continue to refine and release fitness trackers, smartwatches, smartphone apps, and other wearable devices, mainly to better the user experience for sports and fitness enthusiasts.
Yet the company said, “new data shows there may be a gap in the type of data and the accessibility of that data that athletes and fitness enthusiasts want.”
A recent survey of over 1,300 athletes found that athletes rely on wearable data and have expressed a need for different ways for data to be delivered. The study showed that almost three out of four (74 percent) athletes usually, or always, use a wearable to track performance data during their workout or activity, and 83 percent said they would benefit from data in real-time or in the moment. Half of the respondents also said that of the three times (before, during and after a workout), they received performance data from their devices, in the moment or During Data, which was the most valuable type.
Mojo Vision also announced that it had raised an additional $45 million in its Series B-1 investment round supporting its smart contact lens technology. The additional funding includes investments from Amazon Alexa Fund, PTC, Edge Investments, HiJoJo Partners, etc. Existing investors NEA, Liberty Global Ventures, Advantech Capital, AME Cloud Ventures, Dolby Family Ventures, Motorola Solutions, and Open Field Capital have also participated. These new investments bring its total funding to $205 million.
Graphic courtesy Mojo Vision
