Even Realities, a smart glasses maker founded by a team of former Apple employees, has raised $150 million in new funding that values the company at $1 billion, according to TechCrunch.
The round was led by Meituan and Tencent, two of China's largest technology companies. Meituan is best known for food delivery and local services, while Tencent runs the WeChat messaging platform and is a major investor in gaming and consumer tech.
What sets Even Realities apart, per TechCrunch, is its camera-free approach to smart glasses. Rather than mounting cameras on the frames — a design choice that has drawn privacy criticism against rival products — the company is building glasses without them.
The $1 billion valuation gives Even Realities "unicorn" status, the informal label for privately held startups worth at least that much. It also signals renewed investor appetite for face-worn computing, a category that has seen repeated attempts and setbacks over the past decade.
Why it matters: big-name backers betting nine figures on a camera-free design suggests the smart glasses race is shifting toward hardware that sidesteps the privacy concerns that dogged earlier products, and that a team with Apple pedigree is now positioned to compete in it.