Meta (the owner of Facebook and Instagram) has acquired the Belgian-Dutch optical company Luxexcel, which deals with 3D printing of lenses. Founded in 2009, the company uses proprietary 3D printing technology from light-curing resins to produce clear lenses for glasses, LCD screens and waveguides, lenses with integrated projection areas for augmented reality (AR), lenses with integrated electronics placed in them in the 3D printing process , prescription lenses, lenses with integrated LCD film and bifocal lenses.
According to previous reports, Luxexcel was to be a potential supplier of Meta as part of the Aria project – a test platform for recording users’ immediate surroundings and creating 3D Meta resources. Luxexcel generated less than $3 million in revenue – relatively little for a company with such a long history in the industry, but there must have been something about its technology that interested Meta enough to make the company decide to make an acquisition. Thanks to the mass customization of lenses with integrated screens, LCD displays and other electronics, Luxexcel can offer many interesting Meta technological solutions – for example, have a scalable process of mass customization of lenses for its AR platforms.
The amount of the acquisition has not been announced, however, taking into account Meta’s annual expenditure on the development of the Metaverse (approx. USD 10 billion), the amount spent on Luxexcel is unlikely to be noticed … The transaction will benefit the company’s existing investors – KLA-Tencor, SET, PMV, Innovation Industries and Munich Venture Partners, who have invested over $22 million in it so far.
Source: www.vrt.be