Most startups are excited to have seven figures worth of seed capital coming in. Avegant has managed to score two in its first year.
The downtown Ann Arbor-based startup has raised $1.9 million in a Seed Round. It also raised $1.5 million from a
crowdfunding campaign earlier this year. And all of these people willing to throw money at the company can’t wait to see its night-vision technology.
"We smashed our (crowdfunding) goal (of $250,000) in a matter of three hours," says Edward Tang, CEO of
Avegant.
Avegant co-founders Tang and Allan Evans met at the University of Michigan. They were approached by military contractors about creating better night-vision equipment for military drivers during wartime. Soldiers were experiencing better results using thermal night vision while driving. The problem was the display was in their vehicle’s dash instead of over their eyes.
Tang and Evans found that the computer screen and eye fatigue often downgraded the viewing quality. In response they created a night-vision goggle that projected the image directly on the users eye, providing a big step forward in picture quality.
"It was a higher picture quality that I had ever seen before," Tang says.
Avegant's team of 11 employees and one intern has created three different evolutions of the prototype since landing the $1.9 million in a Seed Round last August. The Michigan Angel Fund, an angel investment group, led that investment round. Tang expects to ship the first commercial units of the night-vision goggles before the end of the year.
"We're considering doing pre-orders on the website," Tang says. "It's going really well."
Source: Edward Tang, CEO of Avegant
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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