I Heard You Can Get AI Glasses Fitted Right in Your Neighborhood | Yunqi Capital

Meta Ray-Ban has made smart glasses the first hardware category to break through in this wave of AI. And on this not-so-new track, plenty of innovators are actively laying groundwork, exploring the many possibilities of integrating smart glasses into daily life.

This August, Yunqi Capital Pre-A portfolio company and Xiaomi ecosystem firm Superhexa (蜂巢科技) launched its "Jiehuan AI Audio Glasses," delivering its own answer to the AI moment. Recently, Superhexa formed a strategic partnership with Nova Vision (星创视界), a leading optical enterprise and parent company of Baodao Glasses (宝岛眼镜) — spanning deep channel integration, co-developed co-branded products, and upgraded service experiences. This edition of "Yunqi Capital" brings you the details.

Yunqi Capital is bullish on the innovation window that AI technology opens for consumer hardware, and has been actively deploying in this space. We look forward to AI's generalization capabilities bringing more functional upgrades and reinvention to both new and established hardware categories, better serving user needs and letting smart technology more seamlessly integrate into life.

Key takeaways:

• Jiehuan AI Audio Glasses combine eyewear and headphone functionality, run multiple large AI models, and support AI notification broadcasts, AI chat, and face-to-face translation. (Learn more 👉🏻Xia Yongfeng of Superhexa: Are AI Glasses the Ideal Form Factor for Smart Hardware? | Yunqi Capital)
• Jiehuan AI Audio Glasses will roll out across Baodao Glasses' national store network in phases.
• The partnership covers product try-on, eye health screening, and professional fitting as a one-stop service.
• The Jiehuan x Nova Vision SAP co-branded AI audio glasses will launch in December.

Crossover Collaboration: Smart Glasses x Traditional Eyewear

On September 22, Beijing Superhexa Technology Co., Ltd. ("Superhexa") and Nova Vision Group Co., Ltd. ("Nova Vision"), a leader in the optical field, announced a strategic partnership encompassing deep channel integration, co-developed co-branded products, and service experience upgrades.

Superhexa's Jiehuan AI Audio Glasses product line will enter Nova Vision's Baodao Glasses stores nationwide in phases, with the first batch launching at 40 Baodao Glasses locations across 16 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, and Chongqing. Jiehuan and Baodao customers will be able to experience a one-stop service covering product try-on, eye health screening, and professional fitting at these partner stores. Additionally, the two sides will pursue deep co-development of co-branded products, with the Jiehuan x Nova Vision SAP co-branded AI audio glasses expected to launch in December.

On August 8, 2024, Superhexa released its first self-branded product, the Jiehuan AI Audio Glasses. The Jiehuan AI Audio Glasses represent a new form factor that perfectly combines eyewear and headphones, using open sound field technology, delivering over 24 hours of comprehensive battery life to meet all-day audio needs, with multiple fashionable frame designs rivaling traditional glasses. The glasses also run multiple large AI models, enabling AI notification broadcasts, AI chat, and face-to-face translation, transforming the audio glasses into a practical, efficient on-ear assistant that brings users a convenient, all-day AI-alongside experience. In its first week of sales, Jiehuan AI Audio Glasses topped JD.com's smart glasses category.

Nova Vision Group's Baodao Glasses, since 1997, has expanded to nearly 100 cities nationwide with nearly 1,100 stores. With "professionalization" and "digitalization" as its development strategy, and adhering to user-centric intelligent deep operations, it has achieved "professionalization" in "equipment, talent, service, and product" to provide users with a full-process experience from eye health screening to fitting.

Innovation Trend: The Everyday-ization of Smart Glasses

Jiehuan believes the prerequisite for making good smart glasses is first making good glasses, and service is the most critical part of eyewear. As a highly personalized product, glasses require not just basic try-on and experience, but also precise optometry, customized lens fitting, and wear adjustment tailored to individual vision conditions and eye usage patterns to achieve optimal results. The goal of this Superhexa-Nova Vision partnership is to combine strengths so consumers can experience products through more offline channels while also enjoying Baodao Glasses' professional, full-chain eyewear services.

Xia Yongfeng, founder and CEO of Superhexa, said that as a longtime Baodao Glasses user, he is delighted that Jiehuan products can form a strategic partnership with Nova Vision. After the Jiehuan AI Audio Glasses launch, many users requested offline try-on and service experiences; this partnership will substantially improve the service system and allow more people to directly experience how technology brings healthier, more comfortable, and more efficient lifestyles to eyewear products.

Wang Zhimin, chairman of Nova Vision, said that technology is the primary force of creativity, and as a product used with high daily frequency, glasses' move toward intelligence is an inevitable trend. Nova Vision has consistently invested in technology, with particular attention to the smart glasses field. The eyewear industry is already extremely specialized; Jiehuan AI Audio Glasses has found the product sweet spot of good looks and all-scenario usability, allowing users to quickly embrace this new product category.

As the AI glasses wave arrives, smart glasses are gradually returning to and converging with the wear patterns of traditional glasses — this has become a new trend. As one of China's AI glasses pioneers, this partnership between Superhexa and optical leader Nova Vision may become a new paradigm for future cross-industry collaboration.