tooz to become AR/VR competence Centre of  ZEISS Group

The shares of the joint venture company tooz technologies, founded together with Deutsche Telekom in 2018, have been acquired by the Zeiss Group, bringing the optical and optoelectronics developer into potential growth areas in the virtual reality glasses markets.

Previously each partner held 50% of the shares in the start-up, which develops high-tech optics in the area of augmented reality. ZEISS and Deutsche Telekom pooled their expertise in the fields of optics, optoelectronics and connectivity – three critical factors for realizing market-ready smart glasses - which has successfully led to the development of seamlessly integrated complete solutions for smart glasses over the past years.

"In a challenging and exploratory technological environment, we have achieved all the goals and milestones that we set together with ZEISS and Deutsche Telekom," says Dr. Kai Ströder, CEO of tooz. "Now is the right time to focus on the unique selling points: serial production and visual correction in imaging systems. We will also retain our start-up organisation as part of the ZEISS Group to remain agile in this complex and dynamic technological race."

As the ZEISS Group's AR/VR competence centre tooz will further drive the development and integration of optics for augmented reality products completely independently. In the future, tooz will also equip optical systems from other manufacturers of AR/VR optics with prescription lenses to place products with an integrated prescription on the global markets.

"tooz covers specific competencies and technologies for design, engineering and manufacturing processes, which complement the existing capabilities at ZEISS quite well. tooz will benefit in particular from production and process know-how and the significant experience in the approval of medical optics and will be better positioned on the international market in the future," says Gerrit Schulte, Head of ZEISS Ventures.

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