The archive · Hardware & Devices · Product decision · 2016–2026
LetinAR bets pin-mirror lenses, not waveguides, make AI glasses wearable
Seoul optics startup LetinAR bets pinhole-mirror lenses can be thin, bright and mass-producible for AI glasses; $18.5M round, 2027 IPO planned.
LetinAR
What the business is
LetinAR designs and sells the miniature display optics that project images into AR and AI glasses, leaving finished devices to customers such as NTT QONOQ Devices and Dynabook.
How it started
Jaehyeok Kim and Jeonghun Ha, friends since high school, founded LetinAR in Seoul in 2016, betting that smart glasses would stay a niche until the display optics looked like an ordinary eyeglass lens. The two incumbent routes each had a flaw: waveguide optics made thin lenses but scattered light, while birdbath mirror stacks were bright but too bulky for a normal frame.
What happened
Its PinMR/PinTILT architecture earned LetinAR its first mass-production order in 2024, shipping the B42B optical module into NTT QONOQ Devices' MiRZA XR glasses; in 2025 it began mass-producing the B42C module for Dynabook and worked with Swiss AR helmet maker Aegis Rider. In May 2026 the company raised ₩27.8 billion ($18.5M) from 16 investors led by Korea Development Bank with Daesung Venture Capital and Kolon Investment, bringing cumulative funding to ₩62.5 billion ($41.7M) and setting up a planned 2027 Korea IPO. The Elec reports 2025 revenue of ₩2.1 billion, 13,000+ cumulative shipments, roughly 200 patents filed and a 5,000-unit-per-month production line built around standard plastic injection molding.
How it ended up
Still running and pre-IPO: CEO Jaehyeok Kim told The Elec on 2026-07-10 that the company is accelerating a technology-track listing in Korea next year, using the round for R&D, manufacturing expansion and customer support in China, the US and Europe.
Background
LetinAR is a Seoul startup that designs and manufactures the miniature display optics used in AR and AI glasses; it does not make finished glasses. Founders Jaehyeok Kim and Jeonghun Ha, friends since high school, started the company in 2016 around a contrarian technical bet: the industry's two dominant lens routes — dim but thin waveguides and bright but bulky birdbath mirrors — were both wrong for a device people would wear all day, and a pinhole-mirror design (PinTILT) could thread the needle.
The bet began to pay off in 2024, when NTT QONOQ Devices chose LetinAR's B42B module for its MiRZA XR glasses, followed by Dynabook in 2025 and Swiss AR-helmet maker Aegis Rider. In May 2026 LetinAR closed a ₩27.8 billion pre-IPO round from 16 investors led by Korea Development Bank, lifting cumulative funding to ₩62.5 billion ($41.7M), with LG Electronics among earlier backers. The Elec reported 2025 revenue of ₩2.1 billion, cumulative shipments above 13,000 units and about 200 patent filings.
LetinAR's wedge is manufacturability: its lenses run on conventional plastic injection-molding equipment rather than precision wafer polishing, which the company argues lets it scale to consumer volumes cheaply. As of mid-2026 it remains small in revenue but is positioned as a supplier to a market TechCrunch says shipped 8.7 million AI glasses in 2025, up more than 300% year over year, and it targets a Korean technology-track IPO in 2027.
What has to be true
- Glasses makers buy optics, so a component supplier avoids the brand and retail fight and can end up inside many devices at once.
- PinTILT sidesteps the thin-but-dim versus bright-but-bulky trade-off, and plastic injection molding keeps unit cost and capacity within reach of mass production.
- Two Japanese device makers already ship LetinAR modules, converting the lens bet into recurring manufacturing orders rather than demos.
- The AI-glasses surge — 8.7 million units shipped in 2025, up over 300% — is the macro bet finally arriving, which is why investors paid up ahead of an IPO.
What can be applied
In a component race the moat is manufacturability, not specs: PinTILT got thin-and-bright from an architecture built on standard lens-molding lines, turning an optical idea into shipped orders.
Aftermath
As of July 2026 LetinAR is still private and expanding: cumulative funding reached ₩62.5 billion, 2025 revenue was ₩2.1 billion, and it claims 13,000+ modules shipped across four continents. Kim told The Elec on 2026-07-10 that a technology-track Korea IPO is planned for 2027 to fund next-generation products and global production capacity. Risks sit in its own customer list: early investor LG Electronics is reported to be developing its own AI glasses, and LetinAR's volumes remain tiny beside waveguide suppliers serving the biggest device makers.
Sources
- South Korea's LetinAR is building optics behind AI glasses
- LetinAR Accelerates IPO Plans on AI Glass Optical Modules After Raising 62.5 Billion Won
- ARグラス向けレンズ開発のLetinAR、約29億円を調達——薄型・軽量レンズの生産拡大へ
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