French XR startup Lynx found a buyer, but the fate of its second headset remains unclear.
Lynx founder and CEO Stan Larroque confirmed in July that EssilorLuxottica acquired the company, including its intellectual property, assets and most of its team.
The acquisition comes after Lynx entered compulsory liquidation in March.
French XR startup Lynx has entered compulsory liquidation, meaning it must shut down and its R2 headset will not be launching.
UploadVRDavid Heaney
The French-Italian giant EssilorLuxottica is the largest eyewear company in the world by far. It owns iconic brands like Ray-Ban, Oakley, Oliver Peoples, and Persol, and has exclusive licenses with major fashion companies like Prada, Armani, Burberry, and Chanel. It also owns Sunglass Hut, and has more than 18,000 retail stores in total worldwide.
Meta owns a 3% stake in EssilorLuxottica, which it has partnered with for all of its smart glasses so far.
Larroque is not joining EssilorLuxottica, instead moving to a leadership role at French drone manufacturer Parrot. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Lynx-R2, coming “this summer”, is set to have the widest field of view of any standalone headset to date.
UploadVRDavid Heaney
Announced early this year, Lynx-R2 was set to be powered by the same XR2 Gen 2 chipset as Quest 3 and Pico 4 Ultra, have similar displays and sensors, but feature aspheric pancake lenses, developed in partnership with Israeli startup Hypervision, that would have offered a field of view of 126° horizontal and 103° vertical. That would have made it one of the widest field of view VR headsets to ship as a product anyone can buy, and by far the widest standalone of any kind.
Larroque’s email to backers stated that “it might take a few months for the operations to be smooth again, pending all legal approvals.”
Whether EssilorLuxottica will revive the headset, or simply leverage the IP and expertise of the Lynx team, remains to be seen. It seems quite unlikely.
I’m back writing on UploadVR again (for real this time), and this article is part of a series rounding up what happened in XR over the summer.
