Welcome to Viewpoints, news and investment activity covering the next generation of computing - brought to you by FOV Ventures.

This Month:

• Meta's Ray Ban Display launches

• Why ecosystem play matters more than AR features for mass adoption

• IXI acquires manufacturing, Distance's FT ranking, Starstuff hits 20M views

Dave Haynes, Petri Rajahalme, Sointu Karjalainen & David Ripert (FOV Ventures)

It has been another fast-moving month for our space, with Meta launching the Ray-Ban Display glasses for $799. While AR purists might dismiss them as "just a HUD," that's precisely why they matter. These aren't quite full AR glasses yet, as they lack spatial mapping, world-locked holograms, and fancy hand tracking overlaid on your environment.

Instead, you get a small, private heads-up display in your right eye and an EMG wristband that reads muscle signals to control everything discreetly.

But that restraint is a smart decision.

The previous Ray-Ban Meta saw 200% sales growth in the first half of 2025. People are ready to wear computers on their faces - but only if they're practical, not gimmicky.

Reviewers suggest Display nails this, glanceable map directions, message previews, live translation, and a viewfinder for the 12MP camera. Nothing that requires staring awkwardly into space, waving your hands around or steep learning curves. The Neural Band's EMG gestures mean you can control everything with subtle finger movements while your hand rests on your lap. It's socially acceptable computing, and that's a big unlock.

For VCs, this inflection point is significant. Hardware adoption was always the bottleneck for spatial computing. That barrier is now crumbling. Software is already capable and will catch up to be integrated with the device. Meta has already announced the opening of an SDK, which means developers can finally build for a wearable platform with real consumer traction.

But integration is also a significant gap. While Meta owns Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, most people's digital lives are inside Gmail (Google), ChatGPT (OpenAI) or Teams (Microsoft). The Ray-Ban Display doesn't seamlessly tap into those ecosystems yet, and that leaves competitive room for others to fill.

OpenAI certainly thinks so. According to the Financial Times, they're building a palm-sized, screenless AI assistant, targeted for 2026/27, with Jony Ive. It would listen and see through always-on mics and cameras, running multimodal chat at scale.

Apple also looms large. Their leaked AR glasses roadmap extends through 2028, and they've historically excelled at ecosystem integration. If they can tie spatial computing seamlessly into iMessage, iCloud, and Siri, they'll have an advantage Meta can't easily replicate.

This space is moving faster than ever and Mixed Reality now has a device and canvas being accepted by the masses. Hardware is increasingly becoming less of a blocker, with integration, ecosystem play, and developer tools being the next tests.

If you're building for this future, we'd love to hear from you.

FOV NEWS

VIEWPOINTS - Exclusive Digital Edition

This summer we have been working hard to collate a collection of our most read content, new deep dives on topics, and stories from our portfolio companies into a book.

Upcoming Events

This week, we're hosting Ecosystem Networking in Tallinn on Thursday in partnership with Google, bringing together founders, investors, and operators working in AI, computer vision, spatial computing, robotics, and 3D & game engines. Register below:

On Friday (10th), Dave is keynoting at Realiti.express in Tallinn, the premier annual gathering for XR developers in the Baltic states and beyond.

On Sunday (12th), Dave will also be attending Expand North Star in Dubai.

Next month, we're co-hosting Defence Tech & Deep Tech Night at The Gate VR in Paris with Ventech, exploring the convergence of defense applications and spatial computing technologies, register below:

Slush × FOV: Minus One, LP Event & CTO Workshop

We're hosting Minus One: FOV Ventures Pre-Slush Drinks on November 17th at Allas Sea Pool in Helsinki. Once again, we're opening the doors to 250+ leading VCs, LPs, and founders for the night before Slush kicks off. Last year's event brought together the European spatial computing ecosystem for collisions, connections, and conversations that ran late into the night.

We're also co-hosting a Female LP Side Event during Slush 2025, creating space for women LPs to connect at one of Europe's largest startup gatherings. Pre-registration is now open for personal invites to this exclusive gathering.

Additionally, we're running an exclusive technical workshop with OpenAI (extremely limited capacity) for select portfolio founders. More details available upon request.

See you on the road. ✌️

FOV PORTFOLIO NEWS

• IXI is scaling autofocus eyewear production in Europe, acquiring the lens manufacturing facility of Finnsusp Oy in Finland and entering a strategic partnership with Optiswiss, one of Europe's leading independent lens manufacturers, to create a vertically integrated production base where optical precision expertise runs deepest. (more below)

• Starstuff reached 20M social media views, 1.3M users (!), and 72k+ creators, positioning themselves as one of the fastest-growing playable Gen-AI content platforms for the next generation of creators (more)
  

• Distance Technologies ranked 12th largest defence tech startup in Europe by Financial Times (more)
  

• Flow Computing launched Parallel Perspectives, a podcast exploring how they translate academic research into commercial-grade silicon for their Parallel Processing Unit (more)
  

• Scenario continues to integrate improved models across its platform, now offering video content and audio generation alongside its image and 3D capabilities to help game developers, designers, and marketers create assets faster (more)
  

• GEEIQ published a superb analysis of Roblox's vision for 2026, breaking down how their new TikTok-style feed and AI-generated 4D items will impact not just their platform but the direction of gaming as a whole (more)
  

• Iconic announced their first game The Oversight Bureau with NVIDIA at Gamescom, showcasing how generative AI enables fundamentally new gameplay experiences through their patent-pending Narrative Engine powered by NVIDIA ACE for real-time speech recognition and dynamic dialogue (more)
  

• Spogen.ai launched their new website at spogen.ai
  

• Ray Browser introduced customisation features allowing users to change skins and wallpapers, giving users the ability to personalise their gaming-optimised browser experience. (more)
  

• Psytec Games have launched their new VR title Titan Isles - a fast-paced, bullet hell, action-shooter title. It’s the spiritual successor to their previous ‘Windlands’ series and can be played solo or with up to 4 others. Check the trailer below and download the game for Quest or on Steam.

FOV JOBS

VIEW ALL OPEN ROLES HERE

• Starstuff is expanding their team with seven roles: Frontend Developer, Backend Developer, Game Developer, AI/ML Engineer, Technical Artist, Animation & 3D Artist, and UI/UX Designer for their playable Gen-AI platform. (apply)

• M-XR has multiple senior positions open in London, UK: MTS - ML Infrastructure, MTS - Applied Research, MTS - Research Lead, MTS - Machine Learning, and MTS - Backend roles for their spatial computing platform. (apply)

• Flow Computing is hiring three critical engineering roles: PPU/CPU Modeling Engineer, Compiler Engineer, and Senior LLVM Compiler Backend Engineer to build their Parallel Processing Unit. (apply)

• AI Coustics has two openings in Berlin, Germany: Machine Learning Engineer and Experienced Backend Developer for their speech enhancement technology team. (apply)

• GEEIQ is seeking an Engineering Manager in London, UK (£80k-120k/year) to lead their gaming analytics platform engineering team. (apply)

Thanks for reading, see you next time!