XPANCEO, a company developing smart contact lens technology, has closed a $250 million series A funding round, reporting a $1.35 billion valuation. The round will accelerate the company’s path to commercializing smart contact lenses integrated with extended reality (XR), real-time health monitoring, night vision, and zoom. The round was led by Opportunity Venture, who previously spearheaded XPANCEO’s $40 million seed round. The funding will be used to finalize the development of the smart contact lens, expand XPANCEO’s team across R&D, product, design, and operations, and accelerate the company’s path to market. XPANCEO founders Roman Axelrod (left) and Valentyn Volkov. Courtesy of XPANCEO. “In just 24 months, we’ve developed 15 working prototypes, each unlocking a new layer of possibility, said Roman Axelrod, founder and managing partner at XPANCEO. Since its last round in 2023, XPANCEO developed a lens for AR vision, a smart lens with intraocular pressure sensing for glaucoma monitoring, a biochemical lens capable of measuring health parameters such as glucose directly from tear fluid, and a lens capable of real-time wireless charging and data reading. Other prototypes feature nanoparticle-enhanced lenses for night vision and color correction, as well as lenses designed for 3D imaging. Founded by entrepreneur Roman Axelrod and physicist Valentyn Volkov, XPANCEO’s research collaborators include the University of Manchester, the National University of Singapore, Donostia International Physics Center, and the University of Dubai.