Vancouver, Wash.-based startup RealWear has raised another $5 million in a round from existing investor Columbia Ventures Corporation to expand its global sales arm and invest in development of its industrial augmented reality headwear.
Founded in 2016, RealWear sells a voice-controlled augmented reality device worn by industrial workers that provides remote video calling, document navigation, guided workflow, mobile forms and data visualization. It has two versions of the device priced at $2,000 and $5,000.
The company has shipped more than 10,000 units to 800 customers globally in the past 18 months. It recently inked a deal with China’s State Grid, the largest utility in the world. Other customers include Colgate-Palmolive, Volkswagen, Toyota, and others.
“We essentially are the tip of the spear of a connected worker program for industry,” RealWear CEO Andy Lowery told GeekWire last year. “We are able to free a worker’s hands for the work by providing a wearable Android computer that is fully voice-controlled, even in extremely noisy environments. They can pull up documents, connect to other experts, and facilitate learning and problem solving in situ, meaning right there and then.”
Total funding to date in the 91-person company is $30 million. RealWear is ranked No. 98 on the GeekWire 200, our index of Pacific Northwest startups.
TechCrunch reported this week that funding in U.S.-based construction technology startups rose to nearly $3.1 billion last year, up from $731 million in 2017.
