{"id":105370,"date":"2025-07-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/uae\/smart-contact-lens-startup-xpanceo-joins-unicorn-club\/"},"modified":"2025-07-09T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T00:00:00","slug":"smart-contact-lens-startup-xpanceo-joins-unicorn-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/uae\/2025\/07\/09\/smart-contact-lens-startup-xpanceo-joins-unicorn-club\/","title":{"rendered":"Smart contact lens startup Xpanceo joins unicorn club"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1.15;orphans:2;widows:2;text-align:left\"> <strong>Dubai<\/strong><strong>-based<\/strong><strong> deeptech startup <\/strong><strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/xpanceo.com\/\" style=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">Xpanceo<\/a><\/strong><strong> achieved unicorn status after<\/strong><strong> raising USD 250 <\/strong><strong>mn in a Series A round<\/strong> <strong>led by Hong Kong\u2019s <\/strong><strong>Opportunity <\/strong><strong>Venture<\/strong>, bringing its valuation to USD 1.35 bn, according to a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.zawya.com\/en\/press-release\/companies-news\/xpanceo-becomes-a-unicorn-with-250mln-raise-to-create-ultimate-form-factor-for-ai-powered-xr-computing-icwzcrpy\" style=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">press release<\/a>. The same investor previously backed the firm in <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/xpanceo.com\/blog\/investments\" style=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">2023<\/a> with USD 40 mn in seed funding. <\/p>\n<p style=\"padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1.15;orphans:2;widows:2;text-align:left\"><strong style=\"background-color: transparent;\">Xpanceo? <\/strong><span style=\"background-color: transparent;\">Founded in 2021 by Russian entrepreneur Roman Axelrod (<\/span><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/romanaxelrod\/\" rel=\"noopener\">LinkedIn<\/a><span style=\"background-color: transparent;\">) and Ukrainian scientist Valentyn Volkov (<\/span><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/valentyn-volkov\/?originalSubdomain=ae\" rel=\"noopener\">LinkedIn<\/a><span style=\"background-color: transparent;\">), Xpanceo is developing smart contact lenses that seek to replace personal gadgets by integrating extended reality (XR) technology directly into the human eye \u2014 aiming to reach clinical trial readiness by the end of 2026. The company has built 15 lens prototypes to date and has already developed lenses with health monitoring and enhanced night vision features.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1.15;orphans:2;widows:2;text-align:left\"><strong>Where will the money go? <\/strong>The capital will fund the development of what the company claims will be the world\u2019s first AI-powered XR contact lens, with features including night vision, optical zoom, real-time health monitoring, and XR options. Other lenses in the pipeline integrate real-time wireless charging and data transfer, 3D imaging, and color correction. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The funding brings Xpanceo\u2019s valuation to USD 1.35 bn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":105371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_primary_brand":0,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1548],"tags":[610,7,78,147,1341],"brand":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"class_list":["post-105370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-startup-watch","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-enterpriseam-uae","tag-startup-watch","tag-startups","tag-tech","wpautop","entry"],"acf":{"mongo_id":"41ce59ae-2301-4855-9e45-dc91dc3ca3ad","order":"7","is_powered_by":false,"story_type":"1","photo_url":"https:\/\/ent.news\/2025\/7\/518.jpg","photo_position":"above","homepage_title":"","full_issue_title":"Smart contact lens startup Xpanceo joins unicorn club","related_issue":[105358],"teaser":"The funding brings Xpanceo\u2019s valuation to USD 1.35 bn","voice_url":"https:\/\/s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/ent.news\/audio\/2025\/7\/.0106a229-e2fe-48d4-8499-a41d555a4c9f.mp3"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - 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