Eyesight raised $20 million from Kuang-Chi

9 May, 2016

This the first investment made by the recently founded $300 million Chinese fund. Eyesight develops a touch free interface for digital devices such as smartphones, PCs and TVs

This the first investment made by the recently founded $300 million Chinese fund. Eyesight develops a touch free interface for digital devices such as smartphones, PCs and TVs.  Computer vision technology market is expected to reach $33.3 billion by 2019

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Singlecue – controlling the smart home by gestures alone

Chinese technology conglomerate Quang Chi, which launched it $300 million Israel technology fund earlier this week has revealed it first investment: Eyesight. Quang-Chi’s investment fund will invest $20 million in the Israeli startup. The investment will be used to further develop the company’s technology in fields such as robotics, Iot and connected cars.

Herzliya based Eyesight was founded in 2005 by CTO Itai Katz, formerly a project manager in Freescale where he oversaw a broad  broad range of high level projects, including the implementation and optimization of video encoder and decoder for Motorola DSP. The company developed the Natural User Interface technology – a gesture recognition solution enabling touchless control of digital devices such as smartphones, laptops, TVs and many more devices.

Eyesight also developed the Singlecue – a smart home device that integrates touchless control technology in home environment, enabling control various wireless home devices by gestures alone. The device is based on a CMOS sensor and Eyesight’s computer vision technology. The Singelcue can follow the user from 4-5 meter distance and identify a wide range of gestures. The gestures are translated by the device to operating instructions. For example, the device interprets the common “hushing” gesture –   putting a finger in front of the mouth – and lower the devices volume without using a remote control. The company’s technology is already integrated into devices of many leading manufacturers such as Toshiba, Philips and Lenovo.

An entry “visa” to China

Quang-Chi CEO Dr. Ruopeng Liu said “We examined the top companies in computer vision, gesture control and embedded deep learning, and came to the conclusion that eyeSight has developed one of the most advanced and versatile platforms. The company’s core technology is already incorporated into IoT systems and automotive platforms and together we will bring it to robotics and many other applications. With our help, eyeSight can dramatically increase its pace of growth and development.” Sources in the conglomerate stated that one of their goals is to expand Eyesight’s activities in China and Hong Kong.

As published in Techtime earlier this week, the fund will start with an initial capital of $50 million, and is planned to grow to $300 million within three years. Beside investments in local tech initiatives, the fund will operate startup incubator to help the companies with technological, business development, marketing and organization know how. Indigo Global, Kung-Chi’s longtime partner in Israel, will represent and manage the CGI fund and the incubators activities. Indigo Global, Kung-Chi’s longtime partner in Israel, will represent and manage the CGI fund and the incubators activities.

From smart cars to homeland security scanning devices

Computer vision is being developed for the last few decades, but the technology is only now maturing. Computer vision technologies are integrated in a wide range of fields – smart cars, homeland security, industry and medicine, robotics, Iot, consumer products and many more. The Tractica research group estimates Computer vision technology market to reach $33.3 billion by 2019.2

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