One of the main areas augmented reality (AR) is gaining popularity in is hands-free enterprise solutions. One company looking to lead this boom is RealWear with its HMT-1 headset. Today, RealWear announced that it has raised $17 million in its Series A funding round to help with this goal.
The funding round was led by Columbia Ventures Corporation with the investment being used to accelerate production of the HMT-1 device. The HMT-1 is RealWear’s flagship product, a fully voice-controlled ultra-rugged wearable device using AR for noisy industrial environments including oil and gas, telecommunications, utilities and manufacturing.
“After seeing the HMT-1 device at work in industrial facilities, it was clear that it is the only device which delivers on the AR and wearable promise for industry today,” said Ken Peterson, CEO, Columbia Ventures in a statement. “RealWear’s vision is compelling to us, with the potential to transform how work gets done in industry, empowering industrial knowledge workers with real-time information, without encumbering their hands. RealWear has proven that it has the experience and ambition to make AR and wearable solutions function in actual industrial use cases, and an unlimited number of other uses to explore.”
“We are thrilled to see the investment community support our vision for the future of industry,” said Andy Lowery, Co-founder and CEO, RealWear. “RealWear is committed to delivering innovative solutions that connect the frontline worker to the enterprise to perform at his or her best.”
Founded in 2016, RealWear took its prototype to beta product release in just 8 months and has now reportedly shipped thousands of units to more than 200 global customers. The HMT-1 offers remote mentor video calling, document navigation, guided workflow, mobile forms and industrial IoT data visualization. Featuring a voice-controlled user interface, provided in 10 languages, the device allows workers to operate the tools and equipment needed for the job, even if climbing a scaffold or tower, in extremely noisy, dusty or even dangerous environments. For further RealWear updates, keep reading VRFocus.