15th Rock Ventures, a venture capital firm committed to the investment theme of Human Augmentation to help create an affluent society over a 100-year life period, is investing in Longan Vision Corporation (“Longan Vision”) in the seed round. The Canadian startup develops high visibility AR glasses for people who work in extreme environments such as firefighters.
Longan Vision is developing the Fusion Vision System (“FVS”), a highly visible augmented reality (AR) head-up display for firefighters and those working in extreme environments, with the mission of “Seeing the Unseen”.
The company was founded by a group of students from McMaster University. This prestigious Canadian university has produced a Nobel Prize winner and is consistently ranked in the top 100 universities in the world by the Times Higher Education (THE). They have a high level of research and development capability, with professors from McMaster University as advisors.
Recently, in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, they developed “Gatekeeper”, an AI thermal-camera that can instantly measure multi-person body temperature while avoiding false-positives.
It is also one of the promising startups in Canada, as it was selected as one of “Google for Startups Accelerator Canada” this August.
15th Rock Ventures has decided to invest Longan Vision, a company with the technology to develop products that allow humans to see things they normally cannot. This fits our investment focus on Human Augmentation.
15th Rock Ventures has invested in the Human Augmentation field before, such as Whill Inc (Japan), a provider of an innovative and well-designed personal mobility solution; Onera Health (USA), a developer of disposable patch-based sleep disorder detection devices. We will continue to invest in startups in the Human Augmentation field, which have technologies that enable people to acquire skills that have been impossible to achieve before. By improving their physical abilities and to extend our healthy lifespan, our goal of creating an affluent society in the 100-year life period is attainable.
About Longan Vision:
Based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Longan Vision is a startup founded in 2018 by a group of students at McMaster University, owning cutting-edge technology that combines thermography and optical technology with computer science.
The company is developing the FVS, a mixed-reality visor or head-up display (HUD) specially designed by our team of experienced mechanical and software engineers to help firefighters safely and efficiently navigate dimly lit and smoke-filled environments. Unlike traditional handheld devices, FVS is hands-free and easily attaches to any firefighting helmet brand without obstructing the field of view.
The future scope of Longan Vision is to develop a smart ecosystem to integrate into the smart city concept for first responders to service communities and industries on improving safety on a daily living basis. Longan Vision intends to be an integral part of the future of first responder safety for the coming years.
URL：http://www.longanvision.com/
About 15th Rock Venture:
15th Rock Ventures is a venture capital-focused on Human Augmentation to create a world in which people can live more vibrantly in the 100-year life period by freeing themselves from physical and mental limitations. In addition, we have another company – Spirete, creating our startups by bringing together large Japanese corporations across organizational boundaries to develop startups on a global scale.
An overview of 15 th Rock Ventures:
The name of fund:15 TH ROCK VENTURES FUND 1 L.P
Founder / General Partner: Tetsu Nakajima, Takeshi Minamoto
Address:Tsukiji4-7-1 Tsukiji Mitsui building403, Chuo-ku, Tokyo
URL：https://www.15th-rock.com/
