Roman Axelrod is the Founder and Managing Accomplice of XPANCEO. He has a background in constructing corporations 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 growing a next-generation good contact lens that goals to exchange conventional computing gadgets by seamlessly merging the true 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 bounds of silicon-based programs. XPANCEO’s work is pushed by a tradition of innovation, excellence, and impression—targeted on creating elegant, high-performance options that prioritize motion, embrace challenges, and attempt 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 good contact lenses have been the following frontier in computing?
For years, it was evident to me that our present computing gadgets — fragile, cumbersome, and aesthetically missing — have 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, resembling deeply exploring area 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 the environment and will be effortlessly managed with our minds.
This imaginative and prescient crystallized once I was 31, throughout a chaotic house renovation. My belongings have been stacked haphazardly, obstructing the TV, rendering even easy pleasures like taking part in PlayStation unattainable. 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 gadget that had a revolutionary, final type issue. But, for weeks, I grappled with figuring out what that type issue may very well be.
That battle created monumental despair. Till, one late evening on the workplace — feeling mentally and emotionally drained, after all — I made a decision to go house, and as I walked down the hall and mindlessly scrolled by means of 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 prompt, it grew to become clear. This gadget wanted to be a sublime, weightless contact lens that would seamlessly mix into life. Overwhelmed by this realization, I sank to the workplace ground and started 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 taking part in out over the following 5–10 years?
I’m a agency believer in transhumanism — the mixing of biology and know-how to transcend our present limitations. This good points further relevance as a result of, when contemplating humanity’s bold objectives for the following century — resembling colonizing area or considerably extending our life expectancy — it’s greater than evident that our current know-how received’t suffice.
The fusion of people and know-how will, essentially and completely, redefine our capabilities. Over the following a long time, as extra corporations blur the road between biology and know-how, I foresee this integration enabling us to grow to be 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 grow to be mainstream. Whereas, initially, our target market includes people already accustomed to carrying contact lenses and the evident early-adopters, we venture 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. On condition that our good contact lens is a medical gadget, 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 medical 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 won’t be able to achieve the market.
Nevertheless, these regulatory processes will be time-consuming, and our market availability timeline closely depends upon 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 intention to start out testing the entire contact lens with all options by the tip 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 good contact lens even attainable in the present day, when it was science fiction just some years in the past?
The materialization of our good contact lens prototypes stems from a confluence of cutting-edge applied sciences and a paradigm shift in strategy. Reasonably than miniaturizing elements from current gadgets, we’ve targeted on implementing next-generation applied sciences particularly designed for ultra-small-scale purposes.
Nevertheless, it’s not solely about measurement. A good more durable problem to crack is combining optical efficiency with transparency and performance — all in one thing you possibly can put on in your eye. Conventional supplies can’t ship that. You want one thing that may let gentle by means of like glass, information it like fiber optics, and nonetheless carry electrical indicators like a microchip. Right here’s the place 2D supplies are available in. Their excessive thinness provides them virtually excellent 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 can be small and light-weight sufficient to suit right into a contact lens whereas sustaining excessive efficiency.
One other key aspect to contemplate is anisotropy, which is the flexibility of those supplies to behave otherwise relying on the path of sunshine or present. It’s a bit like wooden grain — it cuts simply a method and resists the opposite. We use this to construct microscopic constructions 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 unravel issues that have been beforehand thought unattainable. How do you embed electronics in a clear object? How do you shrink down optical programs with out shedding operate? How do you make all of it weightless, seamless, and wearable? Apart from 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 skilled in nano-optics and nanophotonics. His insights, mixed with AI-assisted design, have made it attainable to construct programs which can be smaller, essentially smarter, and extra environment friendly. This manner, we’re utterly reimagining what a contact lens can do and rewriting the science behind it, paving the way in which for myriad further purposes in any trade you possibly can consider.
Your work depends closely on superior 2D supplies and photonics. May you stroll us by means of the science behind how these lenses show data or course of information?
Photonics is crucial for picture projection, significantly nanophotonics, given the minuscule scale concerned. Putting a picture supply straight on the contact lens is extraordinarily, extraordinarily tough, because the human eye can’t give attention to 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 straight into the attention. First, we developed an answer that progressively reduces the exterior picture supply to a measurement akin to good 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 straight into the contact lens. This employs a distinct optical system. As an alternative of projecting the picture ahead, it focuses gentle beams and directs them straight onto the retina, already targeted. This course of is called collimation.
The good lens, itself, is extraordinarily compact, so we pair it with a companion gadget, which is roughly the scale of a daily contact lens case. This gadget serves a number of features — 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 important to make it each useful and comfy 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 current applied sciences right into a smaller type issue. Reasonably than taking components from bigger gadgets, we give attention to supplies and applied sciences which can be constructed for small-scale use from the get-go.
One in every of our key breakthroughs, as talked about, has been the usage of 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 stage.
Our scientific workforce, led by Dr. Volkov, has been combining these supplies with advances in nanophotonics. By doing so, we’ve been capable of design programs 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 capable of break previous these limitations, and develop one thing really groundbreaking.
In your view, why is XR—particularly immersive, real-time interplay—so important for advancing synthetic intelligence past present limitations?
The present state of AI has led to numerous hype, however in terms of real-world purposes, we’re hitting a wall. Regardless of the guarantees of a revolution, basic AI nonetheless struggles to adapt to the complexity of the true world. The fashions we depend on can shortly grow to be outdated, since AI lacks real-time studying and human-like understanding of the context of the world. Despite the fact that now we have extra computational energy than ever, we’re nonetheless, from my notion, not getting nearer to reaching 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 straightforward to optimize. Nevertheless, these capabilities don’t translate to extra nuanced, day-to-day human challenges. As an illustration, automation breakthroughs are spectacular, however they don’t make AI really “clever,” for therefore to say, they merely make it higher at one particular factor. I consider the core concern with that is that AI doesn’t expertise the world in the identical manner people do. It operates based mostly on uncooked information, not lived experiences. It’s that easy.
That is the place XR (prolonged actuality) may very well be the lacking hyperlink. By immersing AI in the true world — or at the very least a digital world that mirrors it — XR can supply a manner for AI to study extra dynamically. In contrast to static datasets, XR creates an interactive setting the place AI can interact and adapt in actual time, constructing a sort of instinct that goes past uncooked information. The way forward for AI may not lie merely in constructing greater fashions, however in giving these fashions the flexibility to study from and work together with the world round them in a manner that’s extra akin to how people study.
Past well being monitoring and content material consumption, what are among the most compelling use circumstances you foresee for XPANCEO’s good lenses throughout industries?
XPANCEO’s good lenses go far past well being monitoring or content material consumption. Our intention and imaginative and prescient is that they’ll redefine whole industries. By combining cutting-edge options like evening imaginative and prescient, zoom, and real-time well being monitoring, these lenses will seamlessly combine into day by day life, enhancing routine duties with out disruption.
The potential impression extends to fields like automation, manufacturing, and fintech. In automation, for instance, our lenses may improve operational security by offering real-time information. In fintech, biometric transactions grow to be a actuality, including each safety and ease to monetary processes. For navigation, the lenses supply hands-free, context-aware steerage, which utterly transforms how we work together with the world round us.
The advantages may even prolong to area exploration. In actual fact, on this sector, the lenses supply a pure match, giving astronauts prompt entry to mission-critical data. With 80% of astronauts already carrying contact lenses, this know-how aligns seamlessly with their current 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 many who are visually impaired and supply colour imaginative and prescient for the color-blind. In low-light environments, our lenses enhance security, whereas our reasonably priced neural interface affords a manner for people with paralysis to regulate the lenses non-invasively, making a big distinction in communication and accessibility, significantly for these with extreme mobility impairments. That is one other proof of the stable social impression we’re set to create.
Do you envision a future the place your lenses may grow to be the default computing interface—changing smartphones totally? What must occur for that to grow to be actuality?
The potential of good contact lenses to grow to be the following computing interface is plain. Their seamless integration into day by day life makes them much more intuitive than in the present day’s smartphones, eliminating the necessity for a further gadget. But, I have to say that even when smartphones fade into the background, different instruments — resembling audio system, controllers, and specialised gadgets — will proceed to play important roles throughout industries. This will likely 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 reworked 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 features. What smartphones did was make a brand new type of computing broadly accessible, creating a typical that after appeared unimaginable.
In an analogous manner, good contact lenses received’t change every little thing. As an alternative, they’ll redefine the methods we work together with know-how. It can proceed to evolve into kinds that improve human capabilities, making what was as soon as thought of futuristic merely a part of how we dwell and work. On the finish of the day, know-how isn’t solely about changing outdated instruments. It’s, at its core, about increasing the chances 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?
Magnificence, to us, is greater than floor or aesthetic magnificence — it’s the essence of how each facet of an organization operates — how your workforce presents itself, how seamless your buyer interactions are, and the tempo at which assist is delivered.
Take Apple, for example. Their merchandise and design ideas 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 could not mirror theirs, our philosophy is similar. We got down to create an expertise that feels intuitive, cohesive, and effortlessly built-in into day by day life.
As we navigate the quickly evolving tech panorama, we acknowledge that innovation, particularly on the innovative, typically requires working by means of powerful issues that may appear insurmountable. Nevertheless, for us, these challenges are what propel us ahead.
To deal with 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, often, results in sudden breakthroughs and pushes the boundaries of what we will obtain.
In a world the place digital interfaces are fairly actually turning into a part of our biology, how do you strike the correct steadiness 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 dwell, not grow to be an obstruction. But, as we push the boundaries of innovation, we face legitimate considerations concerning the potential for digital interfaces to grow to be invasive. At XPANCEO, even when we’re nonetheless within the R&D part, we’re already contemplating these challenges.
Take the good contact lens, for instance. The mixing of a digital camera throughout the lens raises apparent privateness considerations, in addition to the potential for misuse. There are jokes about college students utilizing it to cheat throughout exams and real considerations about XR options being activated in unsafe situations, like whereas driving or close to the subway tracks. These are legitimate preoccupations that we take very critically.
Nevertheless, it’s vital to keep in mind that our good contact lens isn’t merely an XR gadget. 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 essential boundaries, making certain that the know-how stays inside authorized and moral tips. As an illustration, simply as we discourage texting whereas driving, the lens will likely be designed to limit utilization in harmful situations, 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 remove misuse — individuals nonetheless use smartphones in methods and conditions they shouldn’t — the objective is to supply safeguards that encourage accountable utilization. As these applied sciences evolve and grow to be a extra pure a part of on a regular basis life, public notion will probably shift. Units like good contact lenses will grow to be 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 common individual’s relationship with know-how change?
On the coronary heart of XPANCEO’s mission is a want to rework 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 greatest, has the potential to make us more healthy, happier, and simpler in each facet of life.
Nevertheless, the present era of devices falls wanting fulfilling the profound ambitions now we 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 turning into an extension of our minds and our bodies.
After we succeed, know-how won’t be one thing we merely “use,” however one thing we’re. It can work in concord with us to achieve new dimensions of our potential that we hadn’t even imagined earlier than. This shift will redefine what it means to dwell, and utterly bolster the very core of who we’re.
Thanks for the good interview, readers who want to study extra ought to go to XPANCEO.