Nreal, the China-based company behind the Nreal Light AR glasses, today announced its secured another $40 million in funding.

As reported by TechCrunch, the latest financing round was led by Chinese video sharing platform Kuaishou, with participation by iQiyi, GP Capital, CCEIF Fund, GL Ventures, and Sequoia Capital China.

This brings the company’s overall funding to $71 million, according to CrunchBase.

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Since its penultimate funding round in February 2019, the company has since commercialized it Nreal Light AR headset, which is currently only available in South Korea. The very glasses-shaped headset, which requires a smartphone to drive its visuals, is being bundled with the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 or LG Velvet and a 5G data plan.

In that country it costs ₩349,500 (~$295) with a data plan; without the smartphone/5G bundle, the headset is priced at ₩699,000 (~$590).

Having more than doubled its lifetime funding with its recent Series B raise, Nreal is no doubt planning on expanding its area of availability. According to Forbes, Nreal Light is slated to launch in the US sometime this Fall, priced at $500, and we’d expect to see other markets open up in the months to come.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.

  • Nreal gets money, Magic Leap loses value… how the tables have turned…

    • The analysts seem to think that “AR glasses+smartphone” will be platform for next 5 years, before”heavy glasses” form factor is possible, by offloading heavier compute function to edge cloud once viable across homes and public space.

      • VirtualRealityNation

        Perhaps, I think that we might see AR glasses in 3-5 years that almost go back to the N-real Dev kit solution where the battery, processor, and heavy electronic components are offloaded to your pocket, but there is no need for a screen on your phone as the glasses are the hands free, hand tracked, voice activated always with you screen that replaces the need for the phone screen. You will carry this accessory with you but it won’t be on your head. Because of power consumption I don’t think it will be wireless for quite a while. Just my two cents.

      • mepy

        I think we will see rapid deployment of 5G networks in urban areas now in the next five years. This can facilitate high resolution AR/VR through cloud computing. Also the Oculus Quest has shown that even APUs can run okayish resolution VR.

  • notRobot2

    A big thumbs up (if they are not monk killer PLA or Commies)
    Nreal is what AR/VR glasses should be.
    Cant wait to have these.
    Nreal come out of china , be global

    • Lex

      Per TechCrunch, their investors include “state-owned telecom equipment maker
      and state-backed investment bank China International Capital Corporation”.

      So yes, directly linked to the CCP.