Finnish startup raises €30 million for world’s first autofocus glasses that work as “nature intended”

IXI, an Espoo-based startup developing the world’s first autofocus glasses, has raised €32.2 million in Series A funding to enable IXI to complete the product development of IXI Adaptive Eyewear and kick off their commercial operations.

The round was led by Plural, with participation from Tesi, byFounders, Heartcore, Eurazeo, FOV Ventures, Tiny Supercomputer and existing investors Maki.vc, First Fellow, Amazon Alexa Fund , Firstminute Capital, John Lindfors, Illusian, and Bragiel Brothers.

Niko Eiden, Co-founder and CEO of IXI, said: “Eyewear is the world’s oldest wearable, rooted in centuries of brilliance across science, design and craftsmanship. That being said, it’s incredible that we haven’t seen more technology leaps, leaving millions of people forced to compromise on how they see the world. The time for change is now. We’re creating a whole new era in vision tech—and we can’t wait to show the world what’s coming. Backed by investors who see the scale of this opportunity, we’re ready to redefine what eyewear can be.”

Founded in 2021 by a team of wearable technology, optics and industrial design, IXI looks to disrupt the €175 billion eyewear market with dynamic lenses that automatically adapt to the wearer’s eyes. Its technology provides a wider field of view in a product that works just as “nature intended your eyes to work”.

IXI’s founders, Niko Eiden (CEO) and Ville Miettinen (Chief Algorithm Officer) previously Co-founded the mixed reality hardware startup, Varjo. Their experience in advanced optics and eye-tracking solutions inspired them to create a new kind of eyewear that solves the challenge of vision correction and addresses the challenges of poor eyesight.

IXI looks to create a new category of eyewear, featuring real-time and ultra-low-power eye tracking and dynamic lens technology.

The company is on a mission to break the limits of traditional eyewear; limits that IXI argues have remained in place for centuries. According to them, traditional progressive lenses force wearers to compromise: narrow fields of view, peripheral distortion, and difficulty seeing clearly at varying distances are common trade-offs.

IXI believes that as global populations age, presbyopia diagnoses increase and millions face significant compromises in multi-focal vision, turning an already widespread challenge into a looming global issue.

Sten Tamkivi, Partner at Plural, said: “Niko, Ville and the team’s rare European hardware expertise puts them at the forefront of advanced optics and eye-tracking developments. They’re creating beautiful, literally invisible technology that pioneers a new approach to vision which will finally improve human eyesight once and for all. By backing IXI, we’re not just investing in a company, but in a future where technology revolutionises how we see the world.”

Their first-generation product is currently in development, with more details to follow closer to launch.

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