Even Realities Technology, a Shenzhen-based smart glasses startup, raised $150 million in a pre-Series B round led by Tencent and Meituan, pushing its valuation to $1 billion. The round makes Even Realities the newest, and most direct, Chinese-funded challenger to Meta Platforms in AI wearables. Meta held nearly 70 percent share of the global smart glasses market this year’s first quarter, according to research firm IDC.
The company said Monday it will use the capital to build its next-generation glasses platform, expand AI integration, scale international operations, and accelerate product development. CNBC reported that Even Realities has so far been funded largely by Chinese-origin venture and private equity firms, including CDH Investment, Monolith Management, and CVC Capital. It also raised an undisclosed amount from Hong Kong-based Unicorn Capital Partners and Cyanhill Capital in January.
Founder and CEO Will Wang joined Apple in 2016 and left in 2018, a stint during which he worked on Apple Watch and iPhone development and manufacturing. He founded Even Realities in 2023. The company says the G2’s design draws in part on that Apple background.
Even Realities launched the Even G2 glasses late last year, adding a larger display inside a trimmer frame, alongside the Even R1, a ring worn on the hand that adjusts what appears on the G2’s display. Where Meta’s Ray-Ban line ships with a built-in camera, the G2 has no camera or recorder inside it. It surfaces notifications, turn-by-turn navigation, and live translation on a heads-up display built into the lens.
“The future isn’t about pulling out a device every time you need information,” Wang told CNBC. “It’s about having the right information available exactly when you need it, while remaining fully present in the world around you.”
Even Realities also disclosed a US-heavy user and developer base: over half its customers and about 80 percent of its developer community are located in the United States. That distribution is notable for a Shenzhen-founded hardware company. It signals the startup is targeting Meta’s core market directly rather than building a China-first product.
IDC data puts the stakes in context. The global smart glasses category grew 167 percent year over year in Q1, with 2.25 million units shipped worldwide. Meta led, trailed by Shenzhen-based RayNeo Technology and Xiaomi. IDC attributed the growth to mainstream adoption of display-less smart glasses, a segment Meta’s Ray-Ban partnership popularized. Total smart glasses shipments, spanning display and virtual-reality models, could more than double by 2030, reaching roughly 50 million units.
That growth pattern cuts against Even Realities’ own bet. The fastest-growing segment IDC identified is camera-equipped, display-less glasses in the Ray-Ban mold. Even Realities is building the inverse: display-equipped, camera-less hardware sold on privacy. Whether that positioning wins share or narrows the company to a niche audience is the open question this funding round does not answer.
The domestic field is already crowded. Rokid, a rival Chinese smart glasses maker, is valued at $2.58 billion after raising $522 million in March, according to PitchBook data cited by CNBC. RayNeo, incubated by TCL Electronics, is worth $239.9 million by the same measure. Chinese capital is now backing at least three separate bets against Meta rather than consolidating behind one.
For operators tracking on-face AI as a distribution channel, the near-term signal is product mix, not funding totals. Even Realities’ next platform, built with this $150 million, will show whether the company adds camera capability to chase the segment IDC says is actually growing, or holds its privacy positioning and cedes volume to Meta and RayNeo.
Reporting by CNBC, published July 6, 2026.
