Avegant, creators of the Glyph head mounted display, have announced the closing of a series A funding round of $9.37 million lead by Intel Capital and NHN Investment, including funding from rap artist Snoop Dogg. The company says that the funds will be used to “help carry Avegant through its manufacturing milestones” for the company’s HMD which was funded through Kickstarter in early 2014.

Avegant’s Glyph is a head mounted display which is embedded into a pair of over-ear headphones. The Glyph’s headphone band can be swiveled down to position what the company calls a “virtual retinal display” in front of the user’s eyes. With a field of view around 45 degrees, the Glyph doesn’t quite fall into the category of ‘VR headset’, but its unique display technology and portable form-factor make the Glyph worth tracking. The company has said previously that their display technology, which utilizes a micro-mirror array, could be adapted to a wider field of view for use with VR.

See Also: Avegant Reveals Glyph – Transforming HMD With Virtual Retinal Display, Kickstarter Starts at $499

Avegant took Glyph to Kickstarter in early 2014. They blasted through their $250,000 goal within 7 hours, and went on to raise more than $1.5 million through the crowdfunding platform.

avegant-glyph-stretch-goals-colors
The Glyph aims to looks like a pair of premium over-ear headphones while hiding a display in the device’s headband.

On Tuesday, it was announced at the Intel Capital Global Summit that Avegant had raised an additional $9.37 million in a series A funding round. The round was lead by Intel Capital and NHN Investment, and also included Kaiwu Capital, Crunch Fund, 500 Startups, DN Capital, Calvin Broadus Jr., and the Michigan Angel Fund.

Calvin “Snoop Dogg” Broadus Jr. became interested in the Glyph after seeing it featured on CNN during the product’s Kickstarter. Apparently he liked it enough to participate in the company’s latest investment. Perhaps Snoop is looking to follow a similar path as the now formidable ‘Beats by Dre‘?

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avegant glyph ergonomic testingAvegant says they will reveal the final design of the Glyph at CES 2015 in January. The timeline listed on the company’s website says that they are currently in the product development phase. Their most recent update to Kickstarter backers from October talks about the process of testing the ergonomics of the device. Avegant says they expect to ship the Glyph in Q1 2015 and is accepting pre-orders for the device on their website.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • brandon9271

    I’m not the slightest bit interested in this… It seems like little more than DLP Pico projectors aimed directly at your eyes. I know its not aimed at VR but the 45 degree FOV just makes it seem like all the other HMDs that came before it. Ok, I can watch a virtual 80″ screen floating in front of my face while on the go. I don’t know when I’d need to do that. maybe if I had a long flight or train ride.. I guess the Avegant Glyph solves a problem I don’t have.

  • Don Gateley

    If you haven’t seen one demoed it’s hard to appreciate the vibrancy and clarity of the image. No pixelation is visible. I backed it for media where 45 degrees is adequate.

  • meridian

    I’ve been following Avegant and keep wondering why on earth Oculus is not using this technology instead of placing an expensive and bulky screen in front of our eyes? Seems this projection method is far superior.