French startup Lynx, specialising in XR hardware technology, is known for the famed Lynx R-1 mixed reality (MR) headset which was made possible through crowdfunding efforts. Lynx recently announced the acquisition of $4 million Series A funding. This investment round was led by Somnium Space, the company behind a VR based social platform.
Together with Somnium Space, early backers of the firm and other investors in the AR/VR space, such as former Google and Meta engineers, participated in the new investment round, according to Lynx.
According to statistics provided by Crunchbase, the new round increases the company’s total outside investment to $6.8 million, after the Kickstarter campaign for its R-1 headset raising $800,000 in the latter part of 2021 and a $2 million seed round in early 2019. Somnium Space’s creator and CEO, Artur Sychov, will join the firm’s board of directors as part of the agreement.
The Lynx R-1, which is based on the XR2 chipset from Qualcomm, integrates high-resolution optics with virtual reality screens to facilitate passthrough Augmented reality technology in conjunction with normal VR. The result is a revolutionary mixed reality offering that easily makes it a leader in its domain. The headgear has been made without conventional Fresnel lenses, with the manufacturer opting for a catadioptric freeform prism form that is four form. This technology helps to minimize the dimensions of the Lynx R-1, in a way that Fresnels possibly cannot.
According to Somnium Space Founder and CEO Artur Sychov, the company’s team is passionate about the advent of accessible and decentralised Metaverse assets that help users truly harness the power of virtual space. This encompasses both software and hardware.
Under founder Stan Laroque’s leadership, the Lynx team has produced the Lynx-r, an incredible AR / VR gadget with transparency in view. It is bringing about sea change in how the market is being viewed moving forward. Sychov emphasised that the Somnium team was excited to extend its support through the collaboration, hinting that the objective is to enhance the VR/AR market’s possibilities.
Lynx, which was established in 2019, also has lofty goals for its R-1 headset.
With a consumer version retailing at $600, the business hopes to pave the way forward into an industry segment that several major players are about to venture into. This includes Project Cambria from Meta and Apple, with the latter seemingly working on a headset too.
According to Larroque, with the work being done by the Lynx team, the chance of them cementing their position as a major player in the European mixed reality space. Their efforts are being supported by a dynamic user and developer community. They put in efforts to discover viable alternatives to proprietary products and environments. He said that the vision of developing a European Metaverse can only be a worthwhile endeavour if it is opened up to users and restrictions are removed. The emphasis is on getting past the hurdles related to access, which are usually imposed by technology giants.
