Chinese language AR glasses and software program firm Rokid introduced it raised $70 million in a funding spherical led by the federal government of Hefei metropolis. Seen right here, an indication for the corporate’s augmented actuality helmet.
Philip Fong | Afp | Getty Pictures
BEIJING — Chinese language augmented actuality glasses and software program firm Rokid this week introduced it raised 500 million yuan ($70 million) in a funding spherical led by the federal government of Hefei metropolis.
Hefei, which has additionally backed electrical automotive startup Nio, is a hub for autos and semiconductor manufacturing close to Shanghai.
Augmented actuality (AR) know-how permits digital photographs to be imposed over the actual world. Apple’s Imaginative and prescient Professional digital actuality headset, set for launch on Feb. 2, additionally permits customers to see the actual world utilizing what the corporate calls “spatial computing” know-how.
Rokid sells AR glasses for customers. However its take care of Hefei will deal with utilizing AR for factories, Rokid founder and CEO Misa Zhu advised CNBC in a cellphone interview Wednesday.
AR glasses may help with gear security checks, whereas lowering the time employees have to spend on coaching, he mentioned, claiming Rokid already has greater than 60% market share in industries equivalent to vitality in China.
Zhu mentioned that since companies care extra in regards to the product’s capabilities than the value, it permits Rokid to check new AR know-how with industrial clients earlier than discovering methods to decrease its value and roll it out to customers.
Rokid’s cooperation settlement with Hefei metropolis will set up an “industrial metaverse headquarters, an ecosystem middle and a analysis and improvement middle,” native state media mentioned in Chinese language, translated by CNBC.
Whereas corporations have diversified their provide chains away from China attributable to geopolitics and labor prices, Beijing has mentioned it needs to construct up home capabilities in superior manufacturing.
Rokid mentioned it plans to make extra tech bulletins within the coming weeks. The corporate additionally expects important potential from the incorporation of synthetic intelligence.
“AI plus AR goes to adjustments folks’s lives within the subsequent 5 to 10 years,” Zhu advised CNBC in Mandarin. “AI will provide help to to higher collect and arrange knowledge, and [AR] can be utilized to show it extra naturally.”
