Tekcapital portfolio company Innovative Eyewear has released a 2023 review of progress and innovation for its smart eyewear including a new app, design patents, licensing agreements with leading lifestyle brands, and most notably, the launch of the world’s first ChatGPT-enabled smart eyewear.
Innovative Eyewear summarised a year of extensive development of its products that will lay the foundations for future growth as the adoption of smart eyewear gathers pace.
“2023 was a challenging year in global markets, but I am pleased to share that our Company is growing, and making great strides towards our goal of mass-market consumer adoption of smart eyewear,” said Harrison Gross, CEO Innovative Eyewear.
“We anticipate 2024 to bring many exciting new developments surrounding the launch of our first co-branded lines with Nautica, Eddie Bauer and Reebok, and the launch of the Lucyd Lion Bluetooth Safety Glass line.”
Smart eyewear innovation
The company launched 15 new styles under its Lucyd Lyte 2.0 line, including an expanded selection for women, believed to be the most diverse smart eyewear line yet. It also debuted new oversized styles under the Lucyd Lyte XL line, featuring upgrades like spring hinges, thinner temples, and sound improvements.
Arguably Innovative Eyewear’s biggest innovation last year was the launch of its Lucyd app in April. The app enables handsfree use of ChatGPT when connected to Apple devices, making Lucyd the first-ever voice interface for the popular AI chatbot. The app also provides complementary AI features like text-to-speech.
On the product development front, the company completed three new lines slated for launch this year: Nautica, Eddie Bauer, and Lucyd Lion Safety Glass. It also expanded its intellectual property, acquiring a license to 46 new smart eyewear patents and receiving notice of allowance on 14 design patents.
2023 also saw major branding and marketing wins for Innovative Eyewear. It launched its first fashion line, Nautica Powered by Lucyd, through a partnership with Authentic Brands. It also secured the exclusive license to the Reebok brand for smart eyewear and investors will look forward to their launch.
In terms of marketing and customer engagement, the company grew its social media and newsletter subscriber base substantially. In addition, it now has over 300 partner optical stores, including a new retail chain partnership in Canada. Lucyd glasses were also featured on HBO’s Hard Knocks through an influencer deal with NFL player Emmanuel Ogbah.
The release of the review today follows news announced by Tekcapital that Innovative Eyewear received Notices of Allowance from the United States Patent and Trademark in fourteen design patent applications protecting Lucyd Lyte designs.
