Innovega Inc.

A columnist for Forbes recently proclaimed, “Every major tech company is now working on smart glasses.” That includes Google, Facebook, Intel, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple.

Innovega may be the key to making these companies’ plans a reality.

Innovega has created “smart” contact lenses and glasses that can deliver high-performance Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) experiences.

This company has a massive IP portfolio, including 14 issued patents and 13 pending patents. These patents protect everything from its contact lenses to optical systems to gaze-tracking technology.

Furthermore, Innovega has been awarded more than $6 million in U.S. government contracts. And its early customers include The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Eye Institute, and a global provider of designer eyewear.

Led by a team with a history of successful exits, Innovega has already completed pre-clinical testing of its contact lenses and glasses. Now clinical trials aimed at securing FDA clearance are underway. And the company is seeking capital to fund the commercial launch of its technology.

Over the next few years, revenue from the AR/VR market is expected to grow by more than 500%, reaching $97 billion by 2025.

A big part of this market includes “smart” glasses equipped with these technologies. As mentioned, all the biggest tech companies are busy developing products that will have these capabilities. As Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook, said, “We all want glasses, or eventually contact lenses, that look and feel normal, but let us overlay all kinds of information and digital objects on top of the real world.”

Investors appear to see the value of AR/VR technologies. While tech giants like Apple and Facebook are already worth hundreds of billions of dollars, smaller companies focused on the AR/VR markets have become considerably valuable. For example:

• Microvision (MVIS), a company developing laser optic technology, has a market cap of $752 million.

• Vuzix (VUZI), a supplier of wearable AR/VR technology, has a $424 million market cap.

• And Kopin (KOPN), a company known for display devices for mobile electronics, has a market cap of more than $230 million.

Innovega could potentially become just as valuable. That’s because this company has succeeded where others have failed.

So far, companies have failed to deliver suitable smart glasses. Their designs are either minimalistic goggles that have low resolution and a narrow field of view, or bulky headsets that are obtrusive, and impractical for most applications. As Innovega suggests, analysts forecast high growth in all AR/VR markets if designers can deliver smart glasses that users actually want to wear.

The company’s glasses may be the solution. Its proprietary contact lens and glasses are presented as lightweight, stylish, high-performance display eyewear. Here’s how they work:

The contact lenses are soft and disposable. Incorporated in them is a powerful micro-lens and a series of light-polarizing filters. The lenses are matched to lightweight digital eyewear that, together, can be used for AR/VR experiences.

In addition to these experiences, the eyewear are designed to improve the lives of the visually impaired. This includes the more than 60% of Americans who require some form of vision correction. In a third-party test, visually impaired patients wearing Innovega’s smart eyewear achieved roughly 20/20 vision at near and far distances.

Innovega doesn’t plan on selling its lenses and glasses directly to consumers. Instead, it will allow established contact lens manufacturers to license its technology. It will also allow glasses manufacturers to co-develop, design, and sell their own eyewear that incorporates Innovega technology. The company will charge fees and royalties in exchange for the use of its technology.

Innovega has developed three working configurations of its eyewear. It’s also secured approval to enable on-eye demonstration of its fourth-generation contact lenses and a portfolio of display eyewear prototypes.

Team Background

Jerome Legerton - Co-Founder

Jerome is an expert in optometry. He has been honored as the California Optometric Association Young Optometrist of the Year and the San Diego Optometric Society Optometrist of the Year. He’s also a member of the American Academy of Optometry Foundation.

He spent 26 years with his private practice as a low vision and contact lens specialist before co-founding SynergEyes, a leader in hybrid contact lenses. More recently, he co-founded Vicoh, another maker of contact lenses.

Jerome has authored more than 70 published articles on optometry, and served as a professor of practice management at the University of Houston’s College of Optometry.

He’s also an inventor who’s been granted 57 U.S. patents for creations related to contact lenses, refractive surgery, and diagnostic instruments. Notably, he co-invented Paragon CRT contact lens technology that was acquired by CooperVision. Contact lenses created from his patents have enabled eye care practitioners to earn more than $1 billion in sales over the last 15 years.

Jerome earned a Bachelor’s degree in Psychophysiological Optics and a Doctorate in Optometry from Southern California College of Optometry. He also holds a Master’s degree in Counseling and an MBA.

Stephen Willey - Co-Founder & CEO

Steve has a history of starting companies that have either gone public or been acquired.

He began his career as a general manager with Mobile Data International, a company focused on cellular communications that was eventually acquired by Motorola. From there, he co-founded Interphase Technologies, a video game developer.

In 1990, Steve joined CREO, a company making high-performance laser imaging products that was acquired by Kodak. He then was Director of eDispatch, a mobile communications business that went public on the TSE, Canada’s senior stock exchange.

Notably, he co-founded MicroVision, a leader in the development of projection technologies for display eyewear and mobile devices. Key customers included Sony and Canon, and Steve helped take the company public on the Nasdaq. Today, MicroVision has a market cap of more than $1.6 billion.

In addition to his role with Innovega, he is on the board of a publicly-traded video game company based in Canada.

He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Physics from McMaster University, a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Graphics from the University of British Columbia, and an MBA from UCLA.

Shane Kim - Director

Shane joined Innovega in December 2017. Prior to that, he was interim Chief Executive Officer, and later Director, of GameStop, a video game retail company.

Earlier, he spent nearly 20 years with Microsoft, serving as a product manager and eventually Corporate Vice President of the company’s Interactive Entertainment Business.

For the past five years, Shane has served on the Board of Directors for the Stanford Alumni Association, where he previously earned a degree in Economics. He also earned an MBA from Harvard.

Jay Marsh - VP of Engineering

Jay has been an engineer for more than 20 years.

Prior to joining Innovega, he spent 16 years with Advanced Projects Research, Inc. (APRI), an aviation and aerospace research company. While there, he was a principal engineer, and later Vice President of Engineering, and developed projects for the U.S. Army, Air Force, and NASA.

Earlier in his career, he was a design engineer for Honda, the automotive manufacturer. Prior to that, he was an associate engineer with USElectricar, a company focused on electric vehicles.

Jay earned a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Mercer University and a Master’s degree from Cal Poly Pomona.

Co-Investors