Participated · Series A · Apr 2025

IXI is developing invisibly‑smart prescription eyewear that uses a small frame‑mounted device to track the wearer’s eyes and drive liquid crystal lenses to auto-focus for presbyopia. The glasses are designed to be low‑power with an estimated battery life of about two days; the lenses also include a near‑sighted prescription so wearers retain distance vision if the battery dies. IXI has filed and applied for multiple patents around its technology and declined to share detailed technical specifics in public. The company says its technology has been proven in labs and plans to show a prototype later this year, but it has not disclosed a market launch date or regulatory timeline. IXI’s team includes founders Niko Eiden and Ville Miettinen and many engineers who previously worked on mobile and mixed‑reality technology at Nokia and Varjo. The company argues the addressable eyewear market is large — cited estimates put it at over $200 billion and growing faster than smartwatches and smartphones. Pixieray is developing adaptive eyeglasses that continuously adjust focal point and optical power so wearers get optimal vision for whatever they are looking at, reducing eye strain versus fixed multifocal lenses. The company has a working prototype and says the product will not resemble VR or AR headsets. Pixieray plans to ship its first product in 2023 and expects to expand the team to about 10 people, hiring in the Helsinki region. The glasses can be adjusted by the wearer over time to match vision changes and significantly increase the clear field of view compared to multifocal lenses. Pixieray intends to partner with a manufacturer for production but will refine the technology beforehand. The founders include CEO Niko Eiden, COO Rebecca Xu, CTO Klaus Melakari and chief algorithm officer Ville Miettinen, with adviser Jocelyn Faubert; Eiden previously worked at Microsoft, Varjo, and CERN.

Participated · Seed · Mar 2025

ai|coustics develops voice AI solutions that bring studio-quality sound to voice applications via an API and SDK. Its product optimizes workflows and reduces post-production by repairing home recordings, poor-quality microphones and environmental noise. The company targets the communication and content industries. Led by co-founder and CEO Fabian Seipel, ai|coustics already serves 500,000 users and lists clients including Elgato, DHD.audio, Deutsche Welle and Radio France. The company intends to use the funds to bring its AI-powered studio-quality sound to every platform and device. The team positions its technology to cut post-production workflows across platforms and devices. AI-coustics builds generative-AI models to improve speech intelligibility and reduce ambient noise across devices and recorded media. The company offers a web app, an API for post-processing, and an SDK for integration into apps, workflows and hardware. Its models are trained on speech samples recorded in the startup’s Berlin studio, where contributors are paid and the team simulates artifacts like reverberation, compression and clipping during training. AI-coustics currently monetizes via subscriptions, on-demand pricing and licensing, and reports about 20,000 users (not all paying) and five enterprise customers. Near-term plans include expanding the four-person team and improving the underlying speech-enhancing model, plus potential real-time use cases and embedding the technology in consumer devices. The founders emphasize recruiting diverse contributors to reduce bias in speech processing models.

Participated · Seed · Sep 2024

Distance Technologies builds glasses-free, headset-free mixed reality using a patented computer-generated 3D light field that turns windscreens, windows, and cockpits into augmented-reality displays with per-pixel depth and full field-of-view immersion. Its core product overlays 3D digital objects and location-specific alphanumeric information without requiring headsets, phones, or glasses, aiming to avoid eye strain. The company emerged from stealth at Augmented World Expo USA 2024 showcasing a proof-of-concept for its first commercial product. Distance’s technology is designed for integration into next-generation automotive systems and advanced defence and aviation cockpits, and it integrates data streams from AI systems into a next-generation human–machine interface. Financially, Distance closed a €10 million seed round led by GV after raising $2.7 million in pre-seed funding months earlier. The company is being evaluated by several leading automotive OEMs, Tier‑1 defence contractors, and aviation companies and plans to deploy across automotive, defence, and aeronautics sectors. Distance is a provider of glasses-free extended reality (XR) technology solutions. It focuses on developing naked‑eye XR technologies for the automotive, aerospace and defense markets. The company's technology can convert any transparent surface into an XR experience without requiring users to wear glasses. Distance targets applications across automotive, aerospace and national defense sectors. Recently the company completed a $2.7M seed financing. Investors in the round included lead investors FOV Ventures and Maki.vc, along with Business Finland and David Helgason.

Participated · Seed · Jul 2024

Founded in 2023 by John Lusty and Junaid Hussain, Iconic.AI is building an AI-native entertainment platform that embeds small language models directly on a player’s device to power real-time, voice-driven game play. The technology lets every spoken word reshape in-game worlds, creating highly personalised narratives without cloud latency, privacy compromises or connectivity costs. Iconic.AI’s first public demo, the narrative puzzle title "The Oversight Bureau," debuted with NVIDIA at Gamescom and was praised for its immersion and responsiveness. Beyond enhancing player experiences, the platform is designed to lower development complexity and cost, allowing studios to experiment with new game genres. The company’s growing team includes talent from Unity, Meta, Sony, Microsoft and major franchises like GTA and Star Wars, and is led by CEO Andrew Bowell, former Product Head at Unity. While revenue or user metrics have not been disclosed, the fresh capital equips Iconic.AI to advance its on-device AI engine, expand its game catalogue and support partner studios.

Led · Equity · Jun 2024

Brainspark Games builds free, AI-powered educational games that use augmented reality to create immersive, curriculum-aligned learning experiences across subjects such as history, science, climate change, languages and coding. The studio emphasizes user-led design via its "Board of Brilliant Brains," which includes over 100 children, parents and educators worldwide. Founder Reedah El-Saie created the company after two years of research to address stress and lack of inclusivity in traditional schooling. Brainspark has partnered with world-class universities and secured seven Innovate UK grants totaling £1.3 million, demonstrating a track record of funded innovation. The company is pursuing partnerships with schools, charities and governments to scale access globally and make its games available to every child regardless of background. Its recent funding boost is intended to accelerate product development and broader distribution.