Roman Axelrod is the Founder and Managing Associate of XPANCEO. He has a background in constructing firms throughout pc imaginative and prescient, esports, and fintech, with expertise increasing operations into Western Europe, the US, and the Asia-Pacific area. Axelrod has negotiated and structured offers totaling over $5 billion and led three profitable exits.
XPANCEO is creating a next-generation sensible contact lens that goals to switch conventional computing gadgets by seamlessly merging the actual and digital worlds right into a single prolonged actuality expertise. The corporate brings collectively main scientists, engineers, and executives to push the boundaries of human-technology interplay past the boundaries of silicon-based techniques. XPANCEO’s work is pushed by a tradition of innovation, excellence, and affect—centered on creating elegant, high-performance options that prioritize motion, embrace challenges, and try to make a significant distinction for each individuals and the planet.
What impressed you to discovered XPANCEO, and what was the preliminary “aha” second that satisfied you sensible contact lenses had been the following frontier in computing?
For years, it was evident to me that our present computing gadgets — fragile, cumbersome, and aesthetically missing — had been relics of a bygone period. Give it some thought. It doesn’t take a lot to understand that they maintain us again from fulfilling humanity’s loftiest ambitions, comparable to deeply exploring house and considerably extending human lifespans. Attaining such feats requires a technological leap, not mere incremental upgrades. Personally, I envision the following pc as one thing that, powered by AI, integrates seamlessly into our surroundings and will be effortlessly managed with our minds.
This imaginative and prescient crystallized after I was 31, throughout a chaotic condominium renovation. My belongings had been stacked haphazardly, obstructing the TV, rendering even easy pleasures like enjoying PlayStation not possible. Pissed off, I imagined projecting the sport onto the ceiling, with WhatsApp open in a single nook and Excel sprawled throughout the ground. That was the second it struck me. The world wanted an AI-powered XR system that had a revolutionary, final kind issue. But, for weeks, I grappled with figuring out what that kind issue could possibly be.
That battle created huge despair. Till, one late evening on the workplace — feeling mentally and emotionally drained, in fact — I made a decision to move dwelling, and as I walked down the hall and mindlessly scrolled by Pinterest, a picture of a feminine astronaut caught my eye. Her vivid eyes, framed by a helmet displaying a celestial scene with orbiting planets, utterly captivated me. In that instantaneous, it grew to become clear. This system wanted to be a chic, weightless contact lens that might seamlessly mix into life. Overwhelmed by this realization, I sank to the workplace flooring and commenced researching obsessively. That was the true genesis of XPANCEO.
XPANCEO’s mission goes far past wearable tech—it is about redefining human-computer interplay. How do you envision that transformation enjoying out over the following 5–10 years?
I’m a agency believer in transhumanism — the combination of biology and know-how to transcend our present limitations. This features further relevance as a result of, when contemplating humanity’s formidable targets for the following century — comparable to colonizing house or considerably extending our life expectancy — it’s greater than evident that our present know-how received’t suffice.
The fusion of people and know-how will, basically and completely, redefine our capabilities. Over the following many years, as extra firms blur the road between biology and know-how, I foresee this integration enabling us to develop into a species with talents far past our present state. This might probably remodel us into a really interplanetary and enhanced civilization.
On this regard, we anticipate that our product will ultimately develop into mainstream. Whereas, initially, our target market includes people already accustomed to sporting contact lenses and the evident early-adopters, we mission that our consumer base will develop from 15,000 in 2027 to 10 million by 2032.
Due to these excessive ambitions, security stays our paramount concern. Provided that our sensible contact lens is a medical system, it should endure rigorous regulatory approval processes earlier than it may be worn by anybody. These processes embody a number of phases, together with evaluating biocompatibility and present process scientific trials in managed environments. Much like different medical developments, the lens is being extensively examined to make sure security and efficacy. With out assembly stringent requirements, it will be unable to succeed in the market.
Nonetheless, these regulatory processes will be time-consuming, and our market availability timeline closely relies on them. Whereas we can’t specify an actual launch 12 months, we’re actively pursuing the required approvals. We plan to begin pre-clinical trials for sure prototypes this 12 months and goal to start out testing the entire contact lens with all options by the top of 2026. Solely after these trials are accomplished efficiently will the lens be prepared for market launch.
What are the core technological breakthroughs that make an invisible, weightless sensible contact lens even attainable as we speak, when it was science fiction just some years in the past?
The materialization of our sensible contact lens prototypes stems from a confluence of cutting-edge applied sciences and a paradigm shift in strategy. Reasonably than miniaturizing elements from present gadgets, we’ve centered on implementing next-generation applied sciences particularly designed for ultra-small-scale purposes.
Nonetheless, it isn’t solely about dimension. A fair more durable problem to crack is combining optical efficiency with transparency and performance — all in one thing you may put on in your eye. Conventional supplies can’t ship that. You want one thing that may let gentle by like glass, information it like fiber optics, and nonetheless carry electrical alerts like a microchip. Right here’s the place 2D supplies are available. Their excessive thinness provides them virtually good transparency, whereas their optical properties — for example, a excessive refractive index — allow us to manipulate lights in ways in which merely weren’t attainable earlier than at this scale. These supplies are important for creating elements which are small and light-weight sufficient to suit right into a contact lens whereas sustaining excessive efficiency.
One other key ingredient to think about is anisotropy, which is the power of those supplies to behave in a different way relying on the route of sunshine or present. It’s a bit like wooden grain — it cuts simply a technique and resists the opposite. We use this to construct microscopic buildings that may management gentle very exactly, enabling issues like waveguides contained in the lens — successfully roads for gentle — with out distortion or scattering.
This marks a brand new period in materials science, and it’s allowed us to resolve issues that had been beforehand thought not possible. How do you embed electronics in a clear object? How do you shrink down optical techniques with out shedding operate? How do you make all of it weightless, seamless, and wearable? Moreover higher engineering, you want higher supplies, and that’s what we’ve achieved.
This astonishing work is led by my co-founder, Dr. Valentyn Volkov. He’s a globally acknowledged knowledgeable in nano-optics and nanophotonics. His insights, mixed with AI-assisted design, have made it attainable to construct techniques which are smaller, basically smarter, and extra environment friendly. This fashion, we’re utterly reimagining what a contact lens can do and rewriting the science behind it, paving the best way for myriad further purposes in any trade you may consider.
Your work depends closely on superior 2D supplies and photonics. May you stroll us by the science behind how these lenses show data or course of information?
Photonics is important for picture projection, notably nanophotonics, given the minuscule scale concerned. Putting a picture supply instantly on the contact lens is extraordinarily, extraordinarily troublesome, because the human eye can’t concentrate on such proximity. And there are two attainable approaches: both projecting the picture ahead onto a aircraft the place the attention can focus, or sending pre-focused gentle beams instantly into the attention. First, we developed an answer that progressively reduces the exterior picture supply to a dimension corresponding to sensible glasses, projecting the picture ahead onto a aircraft the place the attention can focus.
After, we’ve developed a brand new prototype the place the picture supply is built-in instantly into the contact lens. This employs a unique optical system. As a substitute of projecting the picture ahead, it focuses gentle beams and directs them straight onto the retina, already centered. This course of is named collimation.
The sensible lens, itself, is extraordinarily compact, so we pair it with a companion system, which is roughly the scale of an everyday contact lens case. This system serves a number of capabilities — it prices the lens and handles information processing. This design permits the lens to stay light-weight whereas nonetheless supporting superior options.
Final however not least, the revolutionary use of 2D supplies allows us to combine electronics into the lens with out compromising its transparency or flexibility, one thing vital to make it each purposeful and cozy for the wearer.
How does XPANCEO strategy the problem of miniaturization—particularly becoming advanced computing capabilities into one thing smaller than a grain of rice?
As I mentioned earlier, at XPANCEO, we transcend squeezing present applied sciences right into a smaller kind issue. Reasonably than taking components from bigger gadgets, we concentrate on supplies and applied sciences which are constructed for small-scale use from the get-go.
Certainly one of our key breakthroughs, as talked about, has been using 2D supplies. As a result of these are versatile and conductive, they are perfect for creating tiny, light-weight elements that also carry out at a excessive degree.
Our scientific crew, led by Dr. Volkov, has been combining these supplies with advances in nanophotonics. By doing so, we’ve been in a position to design techniques that function effectively even at a microscopic scale.
I have to comment and emphasize that conventional tech, like what’s utilized in smartphones and laptops, is just too cumbersome and inefficient for one thing the scale of a contact lens. Through the use of these next-generation supplies, we’ve been in a position to break previous these limitations, and develop one thing really groundbreaking.
In your view, why is XR—particularly immersive, real-time interplay—so vital for advancing synthetic intelligence past present limitations?
The present state of AI has led to a variety of hype, however in relation to real-world purposes, we’re hitting a wall. Regardless of the guarantees of a revolution, common AI nonetheless struggles to adapt to the complexity of the actual world. The fashions we depend on can rapidly develop into outdated, since AI lacks real-time studying and human-like understanding of the context of the world. Despite the fact that we now have extra computational energy than ever, we’re nonetheless, from my notion, not getting nearer to attaining human-like intelligence.
The place AI excels, although, is in slender, structured duties. Issues like chess, coding, or different issues which have clear guidelines and outcomes and are comparatively simple to optimize. Nonetheless, these capabilities don’t translate to extra nuanced, day-to-day human challenges. As an example, automation breakthroughs are spectacular, however they don’t make AI really “clever,” for thus to say, they merely make it higher at one particular factor. I imagine the core subject with that is that AI doesn’t expertise the world in the identical means people do. It operates based mostly on uncooked information, not lived experiences. It’s that straightforward.
That is the place XR (prolonged actuality) could possibly be the lacking hyperlink. By immersing AI in the actual world — or at the very least a digital world that mirrors it — XR can supply a means for AI to be taught extra dynamically. Not like static datasets, XR creates an interactive atmosphere the place AI can have interaction and adapt in actual time, constructing a form of instinct that goes past uncooked information. The way forward for AI may not lie merely in constructing larger fashions, however in giving these fashions the power to be taught from and work together with the world round them in a means that’s extra akin to how people be taught.
Past well being monitoring and content material consumption, what are among the most compelling use circumstances you foresee for XPANCEO’s sensible lenses throughout industries?
XPANCEO’s sensible lenses go far past well being monitoring or content material consumption. Our intention and imaginative and prescient is that they may redefine total industries. By combining cutting-edge options like evening imaginative and prescient, zoom, and real-time well being monitoring, these lenses will seamlessly combine into each day life, enhancing routine duties with out disruption.
The potential affect extends to fields like automation, manufacturing, and fintech. In automation, for instance, our lenses might improve operational security by offering real-time information. In fintech, biometric transactions develop into a actuality, including each safety and ease to monetary processes. For navigation, the lenses supply hands-free, context-aware steering, which utterly transforms how we work together with the world round us.
The advantages might even lengthen to house exploration. Actually, on this sector, the lenses supply a pure match, giving astronauts instantaneous entry to mission-critical data. With 80% of astronauts already sporting contact lenses, this know-how aligns seamlessly with their present wants.
The medical prospects are equally transformative. XPANCEO’s lenses can help people managing diabetes, stress, dry eye syndrome, and strabismus. Moreover, they will improve imaginative and prescient for individuals who are visually impaired and supply shade imaginative and prescient for the color-blind. In low-light environments, our lenses enhance security, whereas our reasonably priced neural interface presents a means for people with paralysis to manage the lenses non-invasively, making a major distinction in communication and accessibility, notably for these with extreme mobility impairments. That is one other proof of the strong social affect we’re set to create.
Do you envision a future the place your lenses might develop into the default computing interface—changing smartphones fully? What must occur for that to develop into actuality?
The potential of sensible contact lenses to develop into the following computing interface is simple. Their seamless integration into each day life makes them way more intuitive than as we speak’s smartphones, eliminating the necessity for an extra system. But, I have to say that even when smartphones fade into the background, different instruments — comparable to audio system, controllers, and specialised gadgets — will proceed to play important roles throughout industries. This will probably be in a big selection of industries — automotive, aerospace, healthcare, and past.
Wanting again on the evolution of computing, we’ve already seen how smartphones have remodeled our lives by consolidating many duties as soon as reserved for desktop computer systems. However regardless of the rise of smartphones, desktop computer systems stay indispensable for sure duties and capabilities. What smartphones did was make a brand new type of computing broadly accessible, creating an ordinary that after appeared unimaginable.
In the same means, sensible contact lenses received’t substitute all the things. As a substitute, they may redefine the methods we work together with know-how. It’s going to proceed to evolve into kinds that improve human capabilities, making what was as soon as thought of futuristic merely a part of how we reside and work. On the finish of the day, know-how will not be solely about changing previous instruments. It’s, at its core, about increasing the probabilities of how we expertise the world.
XPANCEO talks about ‘inherent magnificence’ and ‘embracing challenges.’ How do these values present up in day-to-day decision-making and product design?
Class, to us, is greater than floor or aesthetic magnificence — it’s the essence of how each facet of an organization operates — how your crew presents itself, how seamless your buyer interactions are, and the tempo at which assist is delivered.
Take Apple, for example. Their merchandise and design rules radiate magnificence in each nook of their operation — from the minimalism of their brand to the cautious and smooth design of their shops. Whereas our product might not mirror theirs, our philosophy is similar. We got down to create an expertise that feels intuitive, cohesive, and effortlessly built-in into each day life.
As we navigate the quickly evolving tech panorama, we acknowledge that innovation, particularly on the innovative, typically requires working by powerful issues that may appear insurmountable. Nonetheless, for us, these challenges are what propel us ahead.
To handle these, the tactic we depend on is rooted in speculation testing. We don’t let the size of an issue overwhelm us, we embrace it as an opportunity to discover myriad options. This iterative course of, steadily, results in sudden breakthroughs and pushes the boundaries of what we will obtain.
In a world the place digital interfaces are fairly actually changing into a part of our biology, how do you strike the correct stability between augmentation and intrusion?
The function of know-how in our lives is to boost, not hinder. Devices — and all technological developments, for this matter — ought to enhance how we reside, not develop into an obstruction. But, as we push the boundaries of innovation, we face legitimate issues concerning the potential for digital interfaces to develop into invasive. At XPANCEO, even when we’re nonetheless within the R&D part, we’re already contemplating these challenges.
Take the sensible contact lens, for instance. The combination of a digital camera inside the lens raises apparent privateness issues, in addition to the potential for misuse. There are jokes about college students utilizing it to cheat throughout exams and real issues about XR options being activated in unsafe eventualities, like whereas driving or close to the subway tracks. These are legitimate preoccupations that we take very critically.
Nonetheless, it’s vital to do not forget that our sensible contact lens will not be merely an XR system. It’s powered by AI, which suggests we will design the lens with built-in algorithms to make sure security and respect for privateness. These algorithms can implement crucial boundaries, making certain that the know-how stays inside authorized and moral pointers. As an example, simply as we discourage texting whereas driving, the lens will probably be designed to limit utilization in harmful eventualities, stopping distractions in context like driving or when close to probably hazardous environments.
Whereas it’s true that know-how can by no means totally eradicate misuse — individuals nonetheless use smartphones in methods and conditions they shouldn’t — the aim is to supply safeguards that encourage accountable utilization. As these applied sciences evolve and develop into a extra pure a part of on a regular basis life, public notion will seemingly shift. Units like sensible contact lenses will develop into much less of an intrusion and extra of an unobtrusive enhancement, seamlessly integrating into our lives whereas respecting each private freedom and societal norms.
If XPANCEO achieves its full imaginative and prescient, how will the typical individual’s relationship with know-how change?
On the coronary heart of XPANCEO’s mission is a need to remodel the very essence of how we work together with know-how. My motivation, thus, is about reinventing the connection between people and the tech instruments we use. I’m a agency believer that know-how, at its finest, has the potential to make us more healthy, happier, and more practical in each facet of life.
Nonetheless, the present technology of devices falls wanting fulfilling the profound ambitions we now have for the long run. At XPANCEO, we see what we’re engaged on because the daybreak of a brand new technological period, a future the place know-how seamlessly integrates into our lives as an invisible but indispensable element, enhancing our capabilities and changing into an extension of our minds and our bodies.
Once we succeed, know-how won’t be one thing we merely “use,” however one thing we’re. It’s going to work in concord with us to succeed in new dimensions of our potential that we hadn’t even imagined earlier than. This shift will redefine what it means to reside, and utterly bolster the very core of who we’re.
Thanks for the good interview, readers who want to be taught extra ought to go to XPANCEO.
