{"id":593120,"date":"2026-05-19T20:30:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T20:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/593120\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T20:30:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T20:30:13","slug":"lg-backed-ar-lens-startup-letinar-raises-18-5m-ahead-of-planned-ipo-next-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/593120\/","title":{"rendered":"LG-Backed AR Lens Startup LetinAR Raises $18.5M Ahead of Planned IPO Next Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Korean augmented reality startup <a href=\"https:\/\/letinar.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">LetinAR<\/a> has raised $18.5 million in fresh funding ahead of its planned IPO next year, something the company says will help scale production and accelerate commercialization of its AR optics.<\/p>\n<p>As first reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/05\/18\/south-koreas-letinar-is-building-the-optics-behind-ai-glasses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">TechCrunch<\/a>, LetinAR\u2019s latest round was led by Korea Development Bank and included participation from Lotte Ventures, the investment arm of retail conglomerate Lotte Group, alongside additional undisclosed investors.<\/p>\n<p>The funding brings LetinAR\u2019s total raise to approximately $41.7 million, with previous investors including LG Electronics.<\/p>\n<p>Founded in 2016 by CEO Jaehyeok Kim and CTO Jeonghun Ha, LetinAR develops compact optical modules for AR and smart glasses. Its proprietary <a href=\"https:\/\/letinar.com\/en\/pintilt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">\u2018PinTILT\u2019 technology<\/a> is designed to deliver brighter images in thinner, lighter, and more power-efficient lenses than conventional waveguide or birdbath optics systems.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe see AI glasses as that next platform,\u201d Kim said, speaking to TechCrunch. \u201cAnd the optical module is the hardest part to get right as AI glasses makers will need a lens that is thinner, lighter, and more power-efficient than what exists today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Notably, the company doesn\u2019t manufacture complete AR or smart glasses, instead focusing on the sort of optical engines already in use with a few early collaborations, including NTT QONOQ Devices and Dynabook, formerly Toshiba Client Solutions.<\/p>\n<p>The startup also said it\u2019s engaged in R&amp;D discussions with several major global tech companies regarding next-gen smart glasses platforms, with one such partner including Aegis Rider, a spinout from ETH Zurich Computer Vision Lab developing AI-powered augmented reality motorcycle helmets.<\/p>\n<p>The funding round comes amid accelerating investment across the smart glasses sector. Companies including Meta, Google, Samsung, Apple, Huawei, Alibaba Group, and Xiaomi are all working on display-clad glasses of some sort.<\/p>\n<p>The company plans to pursue a public listing in South Korea in 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Korean augmented reality startup LetinAR has raised $18.5 million in fresh funding ahead of its planned IPO&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[86,56,54,55,4297,4298,4299],"class_list":["post-593120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-virtual-reality","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-virtual-reality","tag-virtualreality","tag-vr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}