This new funding, the amount of which was not revealed, comes at the end of a dynamic year for the Cluj-based company, during which it attracted several grants and investments. In all, .lumen has raised more than EUR9.3 million in private funding so far, as its officials say, in addition to more than EUR15 million in grants, public information shows. According to public announcements over time and the Crunchbase.com portal, the total of private investment plus grants is higher, more than $33 million (about EUR28 million).
For EIT Urban Mobility, supporting .lumen fits squarely within its mission to fund technologies that make cities more inclusive, accessible, and livable. The solution developed by .lumen uses Pedestrian Autonomous Driving (PAD AI) proprietary technology to replicate the functions of a guide dog through AI, computer vision, and haptics and targets a potential market of 338 million visually impaired people throughout the world.
“Mobility is a human right. With EIT Urban Mobility, we’re scaling our impact from the sidewalk to the city,” said Cornel Amariei, CEO and founder of .lumen.
This new investment comes after a landmark year where .lumen attracted backing from Catalyst Romania, SeedBlink, EIC Fund, Tigrim (Sweden), and VR HealthTech (EU).
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)