Participated · Equity · Aug 2026

Founded in 2018 and based in Joensuu, SeeTrue Technologies develops an ultra-miniature eye-tracking system that combines miniature sensing hardware with highly optimised embedded processing. The company says its architecture delivers real-time, high-FPS gaze tracking while minimising energy use and hardware footprint. SeeTrue’s system-level co-design leverages an anatomically grounded architecture and dynamic sensing logic to simplify integration into constrained devices. It targets applications across medical optical systems, vision care, and smart wearables and aims to enable gaze-based interaction, attention-aware computing, user-state understanding, and workflow tracking. With the €2.2 million financing led by ZEISS Ventures, SeeTrue plans to accelerate commercialisation and expand its Joensuu team to support international market efforts. Investors and partners are expected to provide commercial network access and strategic execution support to aid the company’s go-to-market activities.

Participated · Series A · Jan 2025

Swave Photonics develops Holographic eXtended Reality (HXR) display chipsets that use diffractive photonics on CMOS chip-based technology to sculpt lightwaves into natural, high-resolution 3D images. Its approach produces extremely small pixels and eliminates the need for a waveguide, enabling compact form factors across multiple spatial-computing display use cases. The company says the platform is positioned to transform spatial + AI computing by enabling 3D visualization and interaction. Swave was founded in 2022 as a spin-out from imec and operates from Leuven, Belgium and Silicon Valley, California. The technology has received recognition including a CES 2025 Innovation Award and a Photonics Frontiers Award semi-finalist placement. Swave plans to accelerate commercialization and expand go-to-market efforts using the newly raised capital. Swave Photonics builds chipsets and an Holographic eXtended Reality (HXR) platform that sculpts light using nano-pixel SLMs to produce true, high-quality 3D holographic images for AR devices. The company emphasizes compact form factors, reduced power use, and solutions to visual issues like Vergence-Accommodation Conflict without relying on waveguides or varifocal lenses. Swave leverages CMOS chip manufacturing and claims 60 core technology patents developed over a decade. The company announced its HXR platform in April 2024 and demonstrated the world’s first true color holographic display; HXR will be recognized at CES 2025. Swave says silicon is running at partner fabs and it plans to ship product development kits followed by production devices, using its seed and Series A funding to accelerate commercialization. Swave Photonics is a Leuven, Belgium semiconductor company that conceives, designs, and markets holographic solutions deploying proprietary diffractive photonics and software. Its HXR technology is positioned to power holographic glasses and headsets, delivering immersive spatial AR with high resolution, strong depth of focus, and 180–360° viewing angles. The company targets manufacturers of mobile phones and displays as well as content creators to improve visualization and communication markets with ultra‑high‑resolution, lifelike holographic displays. Led by CEO Mike Noonen, Swave emphasizes its HXR platform as an enabling core product for immersive AR experiences. Financially, Swave completed a €3M seed extension that brought its total seed funding to €10M. The round included participation from imec.xpand, Flanders Future Techfund (FFTF), QBIC, Acequia Capital, and Luminate NY. The new funding is intended to help execute the company’s augmented reality roadmap and to engage future customers, partners, and investors. Swave Photonics develops Holographic eXtended Reality (HXR) gigapixel chips that produce lifelike, high-resolution 3D holographic images using diffractive photonics and standard CMOS manufacturing. The company’s HXR technology targets metaverse platforms, 360-degree holographic walls, 3D gaming, AR/VR/XR glasses, collaborative video conferencing, and automotive/aerospace heads-up displays. Swave says its chips enable vastly higher pixel resolution, perfect depth of focus and wide viewing angles without conventional headset limitations. The firm is a spin-off of imec and Vrije Universiteit Brussel and is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium. Initial HXR chip samples were planned for availability in 2023, with chip sizes ranging from 0.5 cm x 0.5 cm for wearables to 2 cm x 2 cm for ultra-high-end displays. Swave positions its technology as mass-producible and cost-effective due to CMOS compatibility and cites an extensive patent portfolio and over five years of R&D through imec programs. The company aims to commercialize its HXR gigapixel technology to enable immersive, near-photorealistic metaverse and AR/VR experiences.

Participated · Series B · Apr 2023

PreAct Technologies builds near-field, software-definable flash LiDAR hardware and sensor suites that it describes as patent-pending and high-resolution. Its technology targets a wide range of industries including automotive, healthcare, ITS, industrial, consumer electronics, robotics and trucking. The company acquired AI-driven computer vision and gesture-recognition firm Gestoos in January to combine an AI algorithm development platform with PreAct’s flash LiDAR. That combination is intended to improve edge processing of sensor data and reduce reliance on system integrators for new applications and software-defined services. PreAct says it will use recent funding to drive R&D of AI-based computer vision solutions and to expand into industrial and other non-automotive applications. The company is led by CEO Paul Drysch and maintains offices in Portland, OR; Ashburn, VA; Rochester, NY; and Barcelona, Spain. PreAct Technologies builds high-speed, near-field sensing and perception technology—branded TrueSense—to detect imminent collisions in the "last 100 feet" and enable pre-crash airbags and other safety countermeasures. The company aims to complement or replace short-range radar, ultrasound, and camera sensors and to lower the cost and complexity of ADAS while enabling new use cases such as park assist and self-parking. PreAct emphasizes millisecond-scale detection to prepare vehicles for imminent collisions and reduce severe injuries and fatalities. The firm is headquartered in Portland, Oregon. On the heels of its recent financing, PreAct was awarded a $1 million prize from Luminate and plans to establish a manufacturing base in New York state. The new funds are intended to advance deployment and commercialization of its sensor suite and countermeasure algorithms. PreAct Technologies is a Portland, Ore.-based automotive safety company that develops a precrash sensing and response system. Its system uses precision, near-field sensors operating at extremely high speed to sense a vehicle’s immediate surroundings and track all objects in real-time. The sensors are also suited for slower ADAS functions such as self-parking, curb detection, and pedestrian warning. That capability allows automotive OEMs to multitask their sensor suite to address both ADAS and precrash functions as a combined package. Led by CEO and co-founder Paul Drysch, the company raised $1.6M in funding led by Alpha Bridge with participation from elev8.vc and Sony Innovation Fund. PreAct said it will use the funds to accelerate market penetration of its system.

Participated · Series A · Jan 2022

Owl Autonomous Imaging develops patented monocular 3D thermal imaging and ranging solutions aimed at automotive active safety systems. Its flagship product is a patented 3D Thermal Ranging™ solid-state camera that delivers HD thermal video with precision ranging and produces ultra-dense point clouds and refined object classification. The core technology is an adaptation of a thermal ranging solution developed under a US Air Force challenge grant for tracking high-speed missiles. Owl positions the sensor as a redundancy and diversity modality for ADAS and AV stacks to detect pedestrians, cyclists, animals and other road users day or night and in foul weather. The company has offices in Silicon Valley and Rochester, NY, completed field trials with VSI Labs in Las Vegas during CES2022, and showcased field trial results and demonstrations at Photonics West. Financially, Owl announced a $15 million Series A financing led by State Farm Ventures.

Led · Seed · May 2021

Uptrust provides a text- and app-based platform that delivers calendars, appointments, rules, and court information to people returning to society, often integrated with public defenders. The company was formed in 2015 and launched its first product in 2016 after years of trials. Uptrust charges governments a fee to use the service while aiming to limit costs for end users who often lack funds. It has expanded rapidly to 150 sites in 28 states, up from 30 sites 18 months earlier, and the team has grown to about 15 people centered in San Francisco and along the Eastern Seaboard. Longer-term plans include connecting users to services they need on re-entry, such as health care, banking/finance, and housing. The company has raised external capital to support growth, including a recent seed round and an earlier $1.3M round reported last year. Uptrust builds a CRM-like messaging service that connects public defenders, social workers and agencies with people who have interacted with the criminal justice system to reduce missed court dates and compliance failures. Since launching in 2017, the company says it has cut failure-to-appear penalties by more than 50% in the roughly 50 state and county governments where it operates, representing up to $5 billion in potential savings for municipalities. Uptrust is paid by local governments and does not charge end users; its leadership has emphasized it will never charge the people it serves. With new funding the company plans product development including a mobile app that can message multiple public agencies and surface local services such as reduced transportation and expungement clinics. Uptrust aims to reach another 100 jurisdictions and serve one million defendants by the end of 2020. The founders position the product as a platform to serve the more than 60 million people with a criminal record and to reduce wasteful pretrial incarceration costs.