3 Oct 2024
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EIC Scaling Club's member in the 'Next-Gen Computing' market group, .lumen, has announced a €5,000,000 funding round, with €1,000,000 million available on SeedBlink. This marks a significant milestone in their journey to revolutionize pedestrian mobility.
Starting on July 17 at 10 AM on SeedBlink, investors and business angels can participate in this financing round, with a minimum investment of €2,500. The target amount for this round is €1,000,000, with co-investors such as the European Innovation Council and Venture to Future Fund contributing €4,000,000.
Empowering the blind
Despite all technological advancements, when it comes to the mobility of the 338 million visually impaired there are only 2 widely used solutions – guide dogs and white cane. Last year, €500,000,000 was spent to train just 2,000 guide dogs. Currently, there are only 28,000 guide dogs worldwide.
.lumen’s first product, Glasses for the Blind, replicates the main features of guide dogs using autonomous driving technology. By comparison, if a guide dog works by pulling one’s hand, the .lumen device does this with its proprietary haptic interface, which “pulls” the user’s head. This technology has been tested by over 300 blind individuals from almost 30 countries.
.lumen aims to do for pedestrian infrastructure what Tesla Autopilot did for the automotive world. Cornel Amariei, the visionary CEO and founder of .lumen, expresses his excitement about the company's mission and potential impact:
"Growing up in a family with disabilities, I saw firsthand how technology can transform lives and how much is still needed. I founded .lumen to help people, and on the way, I found that we can do so much more. We're opening this [funding] round to everyone, not just institutional investors because we want more people to be part of our story. Join us in this mission to make impact, not just money."
Investors see high potential
Venture to Future Fund is making one of the few investments outside Slovakia, signaling strong confidence in .lumen's technology and vision. Matej Říha, Chairman of the Board at VFF, commented: "We believe .lumen's technology can profoundly transform the lives of blind individuals. Inspired by their mission and backed by an outstanding team, we're thrilled to support a venture that promises both impactful change and impressive returns."
Ionut Patrahau, Managing Partner at SeedBlink, also highlighted the significance of this funding round. "We are incredibly proud to support .lumen and their dedicated team through our investor community. Their innovative work has a profound impact, improving the living experiences of those in need when the rest of society feels helpless."
.lumen’s strategic roadmap includes a limited-series launching in Q4 2024 and the USA market entry in Q4 2025. The company aims to sell 10,000 units by the end of 2026. These efforts are supported by a robust team of 50 engineers, professors, disability experts, designers, and scientists.
Get to know .lumen – read our interview with the founder, Cornel Amariei!
About the EIC Scaling Club
The EIC Scaling Club is a curated community where 120+ European deep tech scale-ups with the potential to build world-class businesses and solve major global challenges come together with investors, corporate innovators and other industry stakeholders to spur growth.
The top 120+ European deep tech companies will be carefully selected from a pool of high-growth scale-ups that have benefitted from EIC financial schemes, other European and national innovation programmes, and beyond.
The EIC Scaling Club is an EIC-funded initiative run in partnership by Tech Tour, Bpifrance (EuroQuity), Hello Tomorrow, Tech.eu (Webrazzi), EurA and IESE Business School.
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