Luxexcel secures a further $10M equity investment

10 May 2017

To further accelerate its business development of 3D-printed ophthalmic-quality lens-making systems

Luxexcel, a developer of 3D printing technologies, including for high-specification ophthalmic lenses, has received up to $10 million in equity financing from a group of financial and strategic investors. A new backer is KLA-Tencor, which is participating in this latest round both financially as well as through in-kind industrial cooperation with Luxexcel.

The existing financial investors of Luxexcel, SET Ventures from the Netherlands, Germany-based Munich Venture Partners and the Flemish regional investment fund PMV also participate in this latest round.

Luxexcel commented that the successful completion of this financing round represented “an important milestone”.

Shipping later in 2017

The company is currently preparing its 3D-printing platform for global shipments to ophthalmic labs in the second half of 2017. The platform consisting of industrial grade 3D-printers, lens design software and workflow integration tools was introduced during Vision Expo East 2017 in New York, in March.

Hans Streng, CEO of Luxexcel said, “This investment by a group of renowned investors combined with the strategic cooperation with KLA-Tencor is of key importance to our business development. It enables us to bring high quality industrial 3D printers to the ophthalmic market and it shows great confidence in our business strategy.

"Ever since our focus on 3D printing of ophthalmic lenses we have experienced an exponentially increasing interest and market pull both from the ophthalmic market as well as related industries such as virtual and augmented reality. The cooperation with KLA-Tencor and its global track record in the semiconductor-tooling industry gives a major boost to our smart-glasses roadmap. We are now ready to scale up, deliver and disrupt, so exciting times.”

Luxexcel’s technology combines hardware, consumables and design-software, in one 3D printing solution. The printing platform can be integrated within standard ophthalmic lab workflow systems. Lenses produced with the 3D print solution are compatible with industry coatings and customary processes like edging and framing. The print platform offers ophthalmic labs the freedom to create revolutionary lens designs and smart-glass functionalities in a mainstream ophthalmic process.