Brilliant Labs, a startup focused on integrating AI into daily life through augmented reality (AR), has recently raised $3 million in seed funding. The company plans to utilize the funding to expand its team and invest in research and development for its open-source smartglasses, which are powered by AI.
The funding round was led by notable investors such as Brendan Iribe, co-founder of Oculus, Adam Cheyer, co-founder of Siri, Eric Migicovsky, founder of Pebble, and Plug & Play Ventures.
Brilliant Labs, established in 2019, adopts an approach called “embodied intelligence” in its design philosophy. The company’s smartglasses, called Monocle, are a dev kit featuring a single-lens design that can be attached to existing eyewear. Monocle, which began shipping in February 2023, provides a six-hour battery life with a charging case that supports fast charging technology.
Similar to Google Glass, Monocle utilizes a single waveguide to display text, allowing users to access important information while remaining engaged in their surroundings. The device also includes an embedded microphone, a camera capable of computer vision, and a hackable FPGA accelerator chip.
Alongside the seed funding announcement, Brilliant Labs introduced arGPT, its first integration of ChatGPT for Monocle. This integration enables developers to directly utilize generative AI and create applications on top of arGPT.
Bobak Tavangar, Founder and CEO of Brilliant Labs, expressed the company’s belief that generative AI plays a crucial role in AR. Brilliant Labs aims to build an open-source ecosystem that supports developers and creative individuals in reimagining the future. Monocle serves as a starting point, and the company looks forward to witnessing the innovative applications developers will create using it.
Other investors participating in the seed funding round include Steve Sarowitz, founder of Paylocity and Chairman of Wayfarer Studios, Nirav Patel, former core team member at Oculus and founder of Framework, Francisco Tolmasky, member of the original iPhone team, and Moveon Technologies.
