Hard Krypton Exclusive | The World's First Smart Zoom Glasses for Myopia and Presbyopia Company Raises Tens of Millions in Financing, Shokz and Gao Bingqiang Place Their Bets

Hard Kr has learned that the smart glasses company "Zhongjian Technology" has completed a third-round financing of tens of millions of yuan. The investors include AfterShokz, the Gaofeng Patient Fund under Professor Gao Bingqiang, Haochen Capital, SEE Fund, listed company Guangfeng Technology, and Professor Gao Bingqiang personally. This financing is mainly used for R & D advancement, and the first-generation product has been launched. Qiyu Capital will serve as the exclusive financial advisor.

Zhongjian Technology was founded in 2023. It is a technological innovation enterprise engaged in the R & D of advanced optical technology and smart glasses products. It focuses on optometric needs and is committed to helping users solve relevant problems.

The founder, Zhao Peng, won a gold medal in the 26th National Physics Competition. He graduated from the Department of Electronic Engineering at Tsinghua University for both his undergraduate and doctoral degrees. He has in - depth research on the application of new display and micro - nano optical optoelectronic technology and has published many SCI papers. After graduation, Zhao Peng worked at Guangfeng Technology (688007) as the head of the research institute, responsible for the company's cutting - edge technology R & D and industrialization, mainly focusing on new display and AR glasses. His job responsibilities cover the complete closed - loop of team building, technological innovation, product planning, R & D implementation, and business docking. He is familiar with the upstream and downstream industrial chains of smart glasses and has resources in the traditional glasses industry.

With the advent and development of the information technology era, the prevalence of myopia among young people in the 1980s and 1990s has increased sharply. "The co - existence of myopia and presbyopia" is becoming a pain point for some middle - aged consumers. In addition to wearing two pairs of glasses, there is another solution in the market, the progressive multifocal solution, which is a kind of segmented - power glasses. One lens of this kind of glasses has multiple focal points simultaneously, which can be used for looking at far, middle, and near distances. However, the available field of vision is small, there is a sense of dizziness, and the cost of fitting through channels is high, resulting in a high selling price.

On the other hand, with the progress of technology, processes, and industries, electro - zoom optical devices can achieve single - lens zoom, have higher integration, significantly reduced size and weight, and greatly reduced costs. The electro - zoom lenses with better experience have reached the critical point of industrialization, laying the foundation for entering the terminal application market. Zhao Peng saw the opportunity and decided to start his own business.

Zhao Peng explained that the principle of electronically controlled zoom glasses lies in the change of electrical signals. "There are multiple sensors in the glasses working together. Some sensors detect whether you are moving, and what your orientation and angle are." Among them, the most important sensor is the distance - measuring sensor, which can adjust the corresponding power according to the distance of the object you are looking at and automatically make the switch.

After more than two years of R & D, Zhongjian Technology is about to launch the world's first smart zoom daily glasses, and the product is expected to enter the crowdfunding stage this year. The following is an excerpt from the interview with Zhao Peng:

Hard Kr: Why did you decide to make a pair of zoom glasses?

Zhao Peng: I have relatives working in Danyang, a major glasses - producing area, so I have a deep connection with the glasses industry. After graduation, I joined a company that makes smart glasses. At that time, I thought that the intelligentization of glasses must be a major trend in the future because it is the visual entrance for people.

I was thinking, why do people wear glasses? In addition to adding some intelligent functions, glasses have their basic optometric functions. People wear glasses to see more clearly, but this function is not well - fulfilled at present. I observed the people around me and found that friends in their 40s start to have presbyopia. The industry saying is "At 43, one starts to have eye problems". After getting presbyopia, in essence, people lose their dynamic focusing ability of the eyeball, and they need glasses with variable power. So I hope that the development of innovative technology and optics can solve some practical problems for everyone.

Hard Kr: How do you deal with the sense of dizziness when the eyeball rotates?

Zhao Peng: This is a good question. First of all, when you move, there are various inertial sensors and attitude sensors in the glasses. When the user simply waves their hand or moves a little, the intention of this action can be recognized. So when it's a small - scale movement and not an attempt to zoom, the glasses will filter out a large number of noise signals and not execute the zoom operation.

Secondly, the wearing experience of the zoom power of the glasses is similar to that of single - vision glasses, so its adaptability is much better than that of the traditional segmented - power glasses on the market. We are also doing some work related to eye movement, which can make adjustments according to the fixation point of the eyeball and also avoid the sense of dizziness.

Hard Kr: Where are the technical thresholds or difficult - to - overcome points in making zoom glasses?

Zhao Peng: The main difficulty lies in the optics. The challenge is that we need to implement the optical technology on the glasses. Unlike mobile phones and cameras, which can have a large lens barrel, glasses can't. However, we have full - stack self - developed optical design and processes to solve this problem.

In addition, the zoom speed and power consumption are also important limiting factors. The human eyeball requires a relatively fast response speed to solve the problem of dizziness. We have also developed some self - designed zoom components, making its power consumption, speed, and optical performance the best in the world at present.

Currently, this category is still relatively new. Although there are some startup companies overseas working on it, there are no particularly mature products. Some products have a very small optical aperture and a too - small field of vision, making them impractical. The most important reason for our leading position in the market and among our peers is that we have underlying innovation in this dynamic zoom optics, which is also where we have spent the most time.

Hard Kr: What size and form do you envision the final product to be?

Zhao Peng: Ultimately, we aim to make the product look like ordinary glasses. However, every product category has its own rhythm. In the early stage, we may launch the product with a strong - function approach first to ensure the functions are in place. Of course, we also pay attention to the appearance, making it more tech - style. In the early stage, we will install fully automated and highly interactive features. In subsequent iterations, we will gradually make the form lighter and more simplified.

In the long run, the existing market alone is already a market worth hundreds of billions. In the early stage, we will use product category innovation to enter this market. Later, we can add some AI functions on top of these functions to target a larger market scale.