Tekcapital (TEK ) said its portfolio company Lucyd's Innovative Eyewear has launched a new Regulation Crowdfund and is seeking to raise $500,000 at a $20m pre-money valuation.
London-listed Tekcapital currently owns 100% of the share capital of Lucyd Ltd and around 78.1% of the share capital of Lucyd’s operating subsidiary, Innovative Eyewear, Inc.
The UK intellectual property investment firm said the proceeds from the regulation crowdfund will be earmarked for Innovative Eyewear to build inventory in order to meet increasing customer demand from the group’s e-commerce and retail sales channels.
Today’s news, which marks the second crowdfund from Lucyd, will enable the group to help meet the rapidly growing demand for its Lucyd® Lyte e-glasses which it launched in January.
In April 2021, Lucyd, the smart eyewear and wearable software developer, closed a fully subscribed Regulation Crowdfund, raising $1.07m at a post-money valuation of $4.8m.
At the time, Tekcapital said the crowdfunding round was ‘beneficial’ to Lucyd, by introducing the brand to ‘thousands of new individuals’, funding Lucyd Lyte™ e-glasses and Vyrb™ app development and providing it with a large community for beta testing of its new products.
The Lucyd® Lyte™ glasses are the group’s latest range of tech-enhanced, prescription eyewear which enables its wearers to ‘seamlessly play music, take phone calls and chat with their phone's assistant while maintaining situational awareness with open-ear technology.’
The features of the e-glasses include Hi-fi Bluetooth® Audio which allows connections to all Bluetooth devices, enables rapid pairing, clear sound quality for calls, music and podcasts as well as open-ear audio enables simultaneous connectivity and situational awareness.
Commenting on today’s news Harrison Gross, Lucyd Cofounder and CEO said, “To-date the product has received more than 200 5-star ratings on Amazon and our Lucyd.co e-shop. We plan to introduce six new styles of our smart eyewear in the next 60 days, including the first titanium front Bluetooth glasses, which weigh just 30 grams, the same as traditional eyewear."
View from Vox
Earlier this month, Innovative Eyewear signed an exclusive purchase and distribution agreement with 8 Points Inc, a subsidiary of Marca Eyewear Group Inc. a leading Canadian distributor that provides high-end spectacles for optical stores and eye care professionals.
To maintain retail distribution exclusivity in Canada, the deal set out a minimum purchase requirement of $4.6m worth of Lucyd® Lyte® e-glasses over 30 months. Monthly minimum committed purchases are expected to rise ‘incrementally’ over the term of the agreement.
Under the terms of the agreement, 8 Points Inc will provide Canadian warehousing and dual language customer support which Lucyd believes ‘will likely result in significant market penetration of its Lyte glasses throughout all provinces and territories in Canada’ it said.
Tekcapital said it believes Lucyd Lyte e-glasses are positioned ‘at the intersection of the eyeglass, hearables and voice assistant markets.’ According to Fortune Business Insights, the eyewear market is projected to reach $179 billion by the end of 2026 with a CAGR of 5.7%.
According to Allied Market Research, the hearables market size is projected to reach $93.9bn by the end of 2026 with a CAGR of 17.2%. Over four billion voice assistant devices are currently in use globally with projected sales of $5.9bn by 2026 with a CAGR of 30.5%.
Tekcapital said it believes that the new Lyte line has the potential for mass market adoption ‘due to its advanced design, designer eyeglass form-factor and affordable pricing.’
Shares in Tekcapital have increased by around 80% in value since the beginning of April 2021. The stock was trading 0.63% higher this morning at 19.12p following the news.
Reasons to TEK
Tekcapital’s mission is to create value from university Intellectual property that is ready for mass markets:
- TEK has the World’s largest network of University IP
- TEK enables rapid value creation with market ready technology selection
- Multi-Year track record of significant revenue and net-asset growth
Follow News & Updates from Tekcapital here: