Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

March 6 news, AR cutting-edge enterprise Thunderbird Innovation announced the completion of the first round of financing, this round of financing by Fosun to create wealth, Rongyi investment, Panax notoginseng entertainment, Runxing Ruihua, doctor glasses strategic investment, weeds venture capital and Hainan Yingtian, with a total amount of more than 100 million yuan, is one of the largest enterprises in the first round of financing in the AR industry. This round of financing will be used to promote the technology research and development, mass production, market expansion and talent introduction of consumer-grade AR glasses of BirdBath and optical waveguide technology routes, and promote the landing and market popularity of consumer-grade real AR glasses. It is reported that Thunderbird Innovation a new round of financing will be launched in the near future.

Thunderbird Innovation was founded at the end of 2021, incubated by TCL Electronics (01070.HK), is a cutting-edge company specializing in the field of AR, the core team of the company comes from Tencent, DJI, Meta, OPPO, iqiyi, and various cutting-edge startups, and has deep accumulation in the fields of near-eye display optical design, self-development of AI algorithm model, and multimodal human-computer interaction, as well as a high level in supply chain and production technology. In the field of AR core optics, Thunderbird Innovation invests a lot of R & D resources and manpower, owns core technology patents, and has the ability of self-development, production and efficient mass production of key optical components MicroLED full-color optical engine.

From the point of view of the product line, Thunderbird Innovation has the product ability in the field of AR glasses of Birdbath and optical waveguide route, and it is an AR brand with complete technical layout in the industry. Last year, Thunderbird innovated and mass produced two consumer-grade XR products, Thunderbird Air and Thunderbird Air 1s, based on Birdbath solutions, and achieved product, technology and market leadership. According to iResearch, Thunderbird Innovation occupied 28.4% of the domestic consumer-grade AR glasses online market in 2022, ranking first in the industry. At the beginning of this year, Thunderbird Innovation released consumer-grade real AR glasses Thunderbird X2 on CES based on the optical waveguide route, breaking through the technical bottleneck of the industry, innovating AR application scenarios, making breakthroughs in key technologies such as MicroLED full-color display, self-developed optical engine precision and miniaturization, and solving the mass production problem of full-color optical engine. According to official sources, Thunderbird X2 will be officially launched in 2023, when the Thunderbird Innovation developer program will be launched at the same time.

Photo: iResearch consults the sales of major online platforms of domestic consumer grade AR glasses in 2022.

As the fastest growing brand in the field of consumer AR glasses, Thunderbird Innovation has strong strength in optics, display, algorithm and machine research and development, which has laid a solid foundation for high-performance hardware research and development, and the continuous enrichment and expansion of ecological applications have further strengthened the connection with consumers, thus achieving industry leadership in the consumer AR market. Thunderbird's innovative market performance and product, technical strength has also been recognized by investors.

Zhu Liping, Fosun's partner in creating wealth, said: "on the long journey of AR, Thunderbird innovation with all-round capabilities of research and development, mass production and sales, has handed over beautiful results in BirdBath products, while taking the lead in releasing binocular full-color MicroLED + optical waveguide products, showing extraordinary potential. We look forward to the future Thunderbird innovation can be innovative combination with Fosun Great Happy Plate and more industrial scenes to bring a new experience for consumers. "

Liu Hongchun, founding partner of Rongyi Investment, said: "relying on TCL's years of deep accumulation in AR optical technology, display devices, intelligent algorithms and other fields, Thunderbird innovation team continues to launch leading international AR glasses, which has been widely recognized by customers at home and abroad. We believe that Thunderbird team can continue to promote the industrialization of AR glasses and become a major global supplier of mass consumer AR glasses."

It is worth mentioning that in this round of financing, Doctor glasses also participated in the investment in Thunderbird innovation. Prior to this, Thunderbird Innovation reached a strategic cooperation with Doctor glasses and set up a joint laboratory to cooperate in the enhancement of smart glasses wearing experience and offline channel empowerment.

Li Hongwei, founder and CEO of Thunderbird Innovation, said, "AR can bring imagination into reality, make space more intelligent, build a real broad sense of the Internet, and bring a new revolution to people's production and life." The underlying problem that determines the development of the AR industry, 'the core technology of AR', is developing continuously and rapidly, and the industry is about to usher in a breakthrough. Thunderbird Innovation is committed to creating a top consumer AR ecology and creating more value for global users. "

Market research institutions generally believe that the AR industry will maintain a growth rate of more than 50% in the next few years, which is a track with great potential. IDC forecasts that the AR market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 70.3 per cent over a five-year period. The forward-looking Industrial Research Institute predicts that the compound growth rate of China's AR industrial market will reach about 78% from 2022 to 2027. China Merchants Securities estimates that the global AR / VR industry space will reach nearly 2 trillion yuan by 2025.

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.