Swave Photonics secures €27M to power holographic displays

Flemish holography startup Swave Photonics has successfully completed a 27-million-euro Series A funding round. The fresh capital will accelerate Swave’s product introductions based on its Holographic Extended Reality (HXR) platform, which will power next-gen augmented-reality (AR) glasses and head-up displays.

Combining semiconductor, holographic and AI technologies, HXR uses the world’s smallest pixels to shape light and sculpt high-quality 3D images that create a reality-first user experience, where digital information interacts and adapts to the user’s surroundings. The technology is claimed to overcome multiple problems associated with AR devices, including high cost, uncomfortable size and weight, significant power usage and users experiencing nausea or fatigue.

Swave, a spinoff from Imec and Vrije Universiteit Brussel, raised 10 million euros in 2023. The latest round was co-led by Imec.xpand and SFPIM Relaunch, with participation from new investors EIC Fund, IAG Capital Partners and Murata Electronics North America as well as existing investors Qbic Fund, PMV, Imec and Luminate.