Even Realities Raises $150M at $1B Valuation
Smart glasses maker Even Realities has achieved a $1 billion valuation after raising $150 million in a pre-Series B funding round. The round was led by Meituan and previous backer Tencent, according to CEO and founder Will Wang. The Shenzhen-headquartered startup, founded in 2023 by former Apple engineers, has quickly emerged as a major player in the competitive smart glasses market.
Funding and Investors
Even’s earlier backers include high-profile China names such as Hillhouse, Sequoia China, and Northern Light Venture Capital. The company has grown rapidly, expanding from 30–40 staff in 2024 to 300–400 today.
Product Strategy: Display-First, No Camera
Unlike rivals that focus on camera-equipped devices for content capture and AI, Even Realities is betting on display-first smart glasses. Its latest flagship (model name omitted in source) hit the market in November 2024 and skips the camera entirely. Instead, a heads-up display built into the frames beams information directly into the wearer’s line of sight, controlled by a companion ring that users tap and swipe to navigate.
Privacy Philosophy
Removing the camera is central to Even’s privacy philosophy. CEO Wang noted that smart glasses are the most personal computing device people will wear, so privacy must be designed into hardware and software. Voice features like translation transcribe audio into text rather than storing recordings, user data is encrypted, and infrastructure meets Europe’s strict privacy standards. The company’s power users rely heavily on Conversate, a copilot that reads conversations in real-time, explains jargon, and syncs summaries to their phones.
Proprietary Optics and Market Performance
Even has invested most heavily in optics. The company developed its proprietary optical technology called Even HAO (Holistic Adaptive Optics), an end-to-end design integrating the microchip, waveguide, and prescription support from the start. Wang explained that smart glasses require an entirely different technology stack than phones or watches, which use conventional OLED or LCD screens.
Market Reach and Profitability
More than half of Even’s users are in the U.S., its fastest-growing market, along with its developer community. The company does not sell in China yet (despite manufacturing there) and focuses on the U.S., Japan, South Korea, the Middle East, and Europe. Even sells near the top of the price category and still moves real volume, making it profitable. The frames retail for $599, with prescription lenses or the ring adding $200–$300, bringing the average order to roughly $1,000. Most customers are male professionals aged 30–50, with about one-third being company executives. The startup’s first product, the G1, launched in 2024 and sold over 10,000 units, making Even the first company to surpass that milestone.