Even Realities Hits $1B Valuation as It Bets on Display-First Smart Glasses

Meta and Snap rolled out new smart glasses last month, the latest sign that the industry is racing to put a camera and an AI assistant onto users' faces. As the fast-growing market heats up, upstarts like Even Realities are muscling in on the giants.

Even Realities, a three-year-old Shenzhen-headquartered startup, has raised $150 million in a pre-Series B round led by Meituan and previous backer Tencent; the round valued the startup at $1 billion. Founder and CEO Will Wang told TechCrunch that while rivals chase camera-equipped devices built around content capture and AI, his company is betting on display-first glasses that beam information straight into the wearer's line of sight without giving up privacy.

A Privacy-First Philosophy

Even's earlier backers are mostly high-profile China names, including HSG (formerly Sequoia China). The startup was started by ex-Apple engineers in 2023. CEO Wang worked on the Apple Watch and iPhone; other co-founders came from tech, and two came from luxury eyewear companies, including Lindberg. The startup moved quickly, launching its first product, Even G1, in 2024 as what Wang calls the lightest waveguide smart glasses then on the market.

Even blew past its own 10,000-unit target to become the first company in the category to sell more than 10,000 pairs, according to the company CEO. It raised money faster than expected, and swelled from 30-40 staff in 2024 to 300-400 today.

The startup's latest flagship, Even G2, hit the market last November and skips the camera entirely. Instead, a heads-up display built into the frames feeds information to the wearer, controlled by a companion ring, the Even R1, that users tap and swipe to navigate.

Removing the camera is an important part of Even's privacy philosophy, though not the entire story. Smart glasses, Wang continued, are probably the most personal computing device people will ever wear. Worn on the face all day, they have to feel comfortable to both the wearer and those around them, so privacy is designed into both the hardware and the software. Voice features like translation transcribe audio into text rather than storing recordings; user data is encrypted, and the infrastructure is built to meet Europe's strict privacy standards.

The Optical Advantage

Even has invested most heavily in optics (the display and overall optical performance), which Wang says is what separates smart glasses from other consumer electronics.

"With a phone or a watch, the display is just a conventional OLED or LCD screen. Smart glasses are the first product category to rely on optical displays, which require an entirely different technology stack; you have to design the microchip, the optics, and the waveguide together. That's where we've invested the most," Wang said.

The company developed a proprietary optical technology called Even HAO, or Holistic Adaptive Optics, an end-to-end design that integrates the microchip, waveguide, and prescription support from the start, rather than combining components designed separately.

The Power Users

Even's power users lean hard on Conversate, a copilot that reads a conversation in real time, explaining unfamiliar jargon or feeding follow-ups on the fly, then syncing a summary to their phone.

Feature Details: Display Heads-up display built into frames. Control: Even R1 ring (tap and swipe) Camera. None (privacy-focused design)Key Use Case: Real-time information display, Target User: Male professionals, 30-50 years old

The Market and Pricing

More than half of Even's users sit in the U.S., its fastest-growing market, and so does the bulk of its developer community. The company doesn't sell in China yet, even though it manufactures there across several factories; its main markets are the U.S., Japan, South Korea, the Middle East, and Europe. "The demand there is significant, so we want to make sure we're prepared first," Wang said.

Even sells near the top of the category on price and still moves real volume, making it a profitable player in the space. "Most of our customers are male professionals between 30 and 50 years old. We ran a survey and found that about a third of our users are company executives," he added.

The frames retail for $599 before tax; prescription lenses or the ring tack on another $200-$300, pushing the average order to roughly $1,000.

Even Realities' rapid rise to a $1 billion valuation in just three years reflects the growing demand for smart glasses that prioritize privacy and practical utility over content capture. By removing the camera and focusing on optical display technology, Even has carved out a distinct niche in a market dominated by tech giants like Meta and Snap. With a strong presence in the U.S. and a user base of affluent professionals, the company is well-positioned to continue its growth as the smart glasses market evolves.