“We were attracted by .lumen’s mission to empower the blind,” said Andrei Gosu, managing partner Ascendis.
Founded in 2020 by Cornel Amariei, Dr. Gabriel Chindris and Mihai Ivascu, .lumen has a team of over 30 engineers, professors, disability experts, designers and scientists who use the latest AI and robotics technologies to enhance the life of the blind.
“.lumen designs a system which uses artificial intelligence and robotics to duplicate the benefits of a guide dog, in a scalable solution, using the form of a headset,” said Cornel Amariei, CEO and founder of .lumen.
The .lumen glasses are currently in the design for manufacturing stage and production is expected to start in the second half of 2021. The start-up attracted over $1 million in investment rounds in 2020.
“Each year we invest some of Ascendis’ profit in start-ups we believe in. Cornel Amariei and his team have developed an extraordinary product that will improve the lives of numerous people with vision impairments. We are confident that .lumen will be a global player on this niche,” added Gosu.
The glasses have been tested by more than 200 blind individuals from Romania and abroad.
“Internationally, there is major interest for our product. In some parts of the world we are already talking about pre-orders for over 10,000 units,” said Amariei.
A pair of .lumen glasses is EUR4,999 but Amariei said the company is not primarily looking at retail sales but targets public financing systems allowing people with disabilities to acquire free or subsidized assisting technologies.