HaptX, which makes-enterprise focused haptic VR gloves, has announced the closure of a $23 million investment. The company says it will use the cash to accelerate the rollout of its next-gen products.

HaptX has been enhancing and refining its enterprise-focused haptic VR gloves for several years now. In addition to force-feedback, the company also touts its micro-pneumatic haptics which push against your skin to mimic the feeling of an object pushing back when you grip it. Though bulky and expensive, HaptX has the most convincing haptic VR gloves I’ve tried yet.

Photo by Road to VR

Following the early 2021 debut of its ‘DK2’ gloves, the company says it’s seen considerable demand in the enterprise space for its wares.

On that momentum HaptX recently announced it has raised a $23 million funding round, bringing the company’s total funding to some $58 million. The new round was led by AIS Global and Crescent Cove Advisors, with participation from Verizon Ventures, Mason Avenue Investments, and Taylor Frigon Capital Partners.

Alongside the round, HaptX says it has “extended its partnership with AIS Global,” which marks a commitment by AIS to help HaptX scale its product to serve more customers.

“HaptX and AIS Global have built a deep, successful relationship dedicated to innovation at the cutting edge of the high-growth global haptics market,” said Joe Baddeley, CEO of AIS Global. “AIS Global and KPS are thrilled to provide the resources, commitment, and expertise necessary to support aggressive scaling of HaptX’s commercial footprint.”

HaptX isn’t talking specifics about its “next-generation product suite” just yet, but we can bet it’ll be a more compact and hopefully more affordable version of its haptic VR gloves.

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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."
  • Shuozhe Nan

    Did anyone manage to get their hands on goerteks reference gloves? They look so much better than everything out there currently.. From functions it looks very similar to lucidVR. Wondering if it’s worth to go for 100% function.. or 50% function at 1/3 of weight currently..

  • BananaBreadBoy

    Good to hear more from them. The gloves are clearly an enterprise experiment, but the quality and rave reviews I’ve heard from it already paint a neat future for VR haptics.

    • kontis

      I wonder how much of the original bulky device’s capabilities can be replicated in a manufactured product.

      Early investors were amazed by Magic Leap’s stationary prototype, but it wasn’t possible to miniaturize and manufacture, so the actual product was nothing like the prototype.

      Haptx may have the same problem. That impressive prototype uses huge pneumatic pump with manifold. hard to see something like that as an actual product.

      This is like getting hyped for next Meta’s headsets after trying that crazy, huge HDR prototype with powerful lasers plugged into the wall outlet.

      Mistaking research prototypes (that only experiment with what experience is technically possible and how human body reacts) with actual product prototypes.

      • silvaring

        That’s what makes Sony’s approach so damn interesting, they’ve slowly been working towards mass produced and fantastic haptics, and the company behind some of the haptics (cant recall, they first used it in the Nintendo Switch) also has links (licensing or ownership iirc) with Microsoft, so they will truly become a new standard for haptics across many devices. So many of these crowd funded projects though just end up getting rebranded and moulded into something different if they ever ship at all!

        • XRC

          Immersion Corporation licenses their haptics technology to Sony, amongst many others.

          • scottosaur

            They’ve been in the game for ages. I had a Logitech mouse with Immersion-branded haptics back in 2001. I absolutely loved that thing. There were very few games that supported it, but I thought it was incredible at the time. Always been sad that there was no followup. See also: force-feedback joysticks.

  • Carlos

    I hope they make it affordable and wireless on the next 5 years. Can’t wait.