Imagine seeing your messages, tracking your health, or even navigating in the dark, all without even lifting your phone. That future just got closer, thanks to Dubai-based startup XPANCEO.
The company has raised a whopping $250 million to bring its smart contact lens to life. With this, XPANCEO joins the elite club of billion-dollar startups, becoming one of the UAE’s latest tech unicorns.
From Sci-Fi to Real Life
XPANCEO isn’t building another gadget to strap to your face. Instead, they’re working on something straight out of science fiction: a contact lens that could one day replace your phone, watch, and glasses.
This tiny lens is packed with amazing features: it can show you digital information right in your field of vision, help monitor your health, and even offer night vision.
Yes, night vision!
And all of it happens through a lens thinner than a strand of human hair.
What Can the Lens Actually Do?
The idea is to create a wearable that blends into your daily life without being obvious. While tech giants are racing to make better AR glasses and headsets, XPANCEO is skipping that step and going smaller, sleeker, and more personal.
Some of the Lens’ Standout Abilities Include:
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Showing AR visuals: Think navigation directions or notifications directly in front of your eyes.
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Health monitoring: It can track things like eye pressure to help with conditions like glaucoma, and even analyse your tears for signs of stress, blood sugar levels, and vitamin deficiencies.
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Vision enhancement: Lenses that help colorblind users, improve low-light visibility, or even zoom in on what you’re seeing.
Plus, it can do all this without needing bulky batteries or wires. A small external device powers the lens and handles the tech behind the scenes.
A Team That Mixes Science and Ambition
XPANCEO was founded by two people from very different worlds. A Ukrainian physicist, Dr. Valentyn S. Volkov, has spent his career working with advanced materials and optics.
The other, Roman Axelrod, is a seasoned entrepreneur with a passion for turning big ideas into real-world products.
They met in 2019, hit it off, and quickly realised they shared the same vision: to bring computing closer to the human body in the most natural way possible. Together, they built a world-class research team that has already created more than a dozen working lens prototypes.
What’s Next?
With fresh funding in the bank, XPANCEO plans to expand its team and start preparing the lens for real-world use. They’re eyeing big opportunities in healthcare, industrial safety, and defence, but they’re also thinking long-term: a day when the average person might ditch their phone and rely on a single, invisible device to stay connected.
The road ahead won’t be easy. Turning a high-tech lens into something comfortable, affordable, and safe for daily use will take time and testing. However, if XPANCEO pulls it off, it could mark the beginning of a whole new era, one where your eyes become your screen.
And maybe, just maybe, the smartphone would finally meet its match.
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