CREAL

CREAL
Information
Type	Startup, Private
Industry	Display technology, AR/VR/MR, Optics, Electronics, Vision care
Founded	Template:Start date
Founder	Tomas Sluka, Alexander Kvasov, Tomas Kubes
Headquarters	Chemin de la Dent d'Oche 1A, Ecublens, Lausanne, Switzerland
Notable Personnel	Tomas Sluka (CEO & Co-Founder)
Products	Light-field micro-display technology, "Clarity" light-field display prototype, Technology licenses
Website	Template:URL

CREAL SA is a Swiss display technology startup company headquartered in Ecublens, near Lausanne. [10, 3] Founded in November 2017, the company specializes in developing light-field micro-display technologies primarily aimed at Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) applications, as well as the vision care industry. [10, 3, 5, 11, 21] CREAL's core technological focus is to address the vergence-accommodation conflict (VAC), a common issue in conventional HMDs that can cause eye strain, fatigue, and nausea. [5, 6, 7, 11, 13, 18, 20, 21, 22] By projecting images with true depth cues that mimic how light behaves in the real world, CREAL's displays aim to allow users' eyes to focus naturally at varying distances, enabling a more comfortable and realistic visual experience. [3, 4, 7, 8, 21, 22]

History

CREAL was co-founded in November 2017 by Tomas Sluka, Alexander Kvasov, and Tomas Kubes. [10, 5, 15] Tomas Sluka, who serves as CEO, was previously a researcher at EPFL and CERN. [5] The founding was driven partly by Sluka's personal negative experiences with the visual discomfort caused by early VR headsets and the realization that the vergence-accommodation conflict was a fundamental unsolved problem hindering the adoption of extended reality technologies. [5, 27] He began exploring solutions and developed a promising light-field projector concept, which formed the basis for CREAL. [5]

The company initially operated within the EPFL Innovation Park in Lausanne, a major Swiss technology hub. [6, 11] CREAL has since established its headquarters in Ecublens. [10, 14] The technical team comprises experts with backgrounds from prominent research institutions and technology companies, including CERN, EPFL, Intel, and Magic Leap. [3, 5, 6, 11, 18, 32] The company employed around 20 people by late 2021 and approximately 30 employees (25 full-time equivalents) by late 2023. [6, 20]

CREAL has secured significant funding through several rounds:

• Seed Round (2018): CHF 0.85 million. [18]
• Series A (2019): CHF 4.3 million. [18]
• EIC Grant (2019): €2.5 million (approx. CHF 2.5 million) from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. [18, 25]
• Series A+ (Nov 2020): CHF 6.5 million, led by Swisscom Ventures and joined by existing investors Verve Ventures, DAA Capital Partners, and Ariel Luedi. [13, 18, 22] This brought total funding at the time to approximately CHF 14.2 million. [18]
• Series B Prime (Oct 2024): An undisclosed amount led by Carl Zeiss Vision International GmbH (ZEISS). [26, 25]

By late 2023, the company had raised a total of USD $22 million and secured 17 patent families for its technology. [10] Key investors include Swisscom Ventures, Verve Ventures, DAA Capital Partners, the EIC Fund (European Union), and ZEISS. [13, 18, 11, 25, 26]

Technology

CREAL's core innovation lies in its light-field display technology, designed to overcome the limitations of traditional AR/VR displays. [3, 4, 8] Conventional displays typically present stereoscopic images on flat screens set at a fixed focal distance. [3, 7, 13, 18, 22] This creates a mismatch between vergence (the angle of the eyes converging on an object) and accommodation (the eye lens focusing at a specific distance), known as the vergence-accommodation conflict (VAC). [6, 7, 20] This conflict is a primary cause of visual discomfort, eye strain, and nausea during prolonged use of AR/VR devices. [6, 7, 11, 13, 18, 21]

CREAL's light-field approach aims to recreate the way light rays naturally emanate from objects in the real world. [3, 8, 21] By projecting digital content with genuinely three-dimensional, hologram-like properties and correct depth cues, the technology allows each eye to naturally adjust its focus for objects at different virtual distances, just as it would in reality. [3, 4, 8, 13, 18, 21, 22] This is intended to eliminate the VAC, providing a visually comfortable, healthy, and more immersive experience, particularly for interactions within personal space where depth perception is critical. [3, 4, 6, 7, 8]

Key features and components of CREAL's technology include:

• True Depth Projection: Projects images allowing natural focus from very close distances to infinity. [3, 20]
• High Resolution & Contrast: Aims to match or exceed the spatial resolution of current AR glasses, with high contrast ratios (e.g., over 1,000:1 mentioned for the Clarity prototype). [8]
• Prescription Compatibility: Integrates with conventional prescription lenses, allowing users to see both the real and virtual worlds corrected for their vision. [3, 4, 7, 8] This can be achieved using a transparent holographic film applied to the lens. [4, 20] The system can also reportedly correct for near/far-sightedness by rendering the light field as if viewed through simulated prescription lenses. [8]
• High Transparency: Designed to maintain clear vision of the real world and enable natural eye contact, crucial for social acceptance of AR glasses. [3, 4, 7]
• Miniaturization & Efficiency: Ongoing work focuses on reducing the size and weight of the hardware components and improving computational efficiency to enable integration into standard eyeglass form factors. [5, 7] CREAL has reported achieving first light from a Photonic Integrated Chip (PIC) in March 2025, a step towards further miniaturization. [2]
• OpenXR Compatibility: The display technology is compatible with the OpenXR standard, facilitating broader application development and adoption. [3, 7, 12]

Clarity Prototype

In January 2025, CREAL announced its "Clarity" light-field display prototype was ready for integration by OEMs. [3, 8] This iteration represents a significant reduction in size compared to earlier prototypes, making it compact enough to potentially fit into standard eyeglass designs. [7, 8] The Clarity display was demonstrated at the SPIE AR | VR | MR conference in early 2025. [3, 7] It reportedly renders over 1,000 depth plane images using pinhole-like optics to project the light field. [8]

Products and Business Model

CREAL does not plan to manufacture and sell its own branded end-user AR/VR devices. [20] Instead, its business model focuses on developing and licensing its patented light-field micro-display technology stack to OEMs, ODMs, and other companies in the consumer electronics, Big Tech, and vision care sectors. [3, 8, 10, 11, 20] The company offers technology evaluation kits, integration solutions, and licenses to enable partners to incorporate CREAL's displays into their next-generation products. [10]

As of late 2023, CREAL stated that several leading AR glasses and headset ODMs were evaluating its technology for integration into products expected to become commercially available starting in 2024. [11] The company estimated that the hardware components for its system could cost less than $100 per unit when manufactured at scale. [20]

Partnerships

• ZEISS: In September 2024, CREAL announced a significant licensing agreement with Carl Zeiss Vision International GmbH (ZEISS). [24, 32, 33] Under this partnership, ZEISS plans to integrate CREAL's light-field technology into a new digital vision care platform. [24, 32] This platform aims to modernize eye examinations by enabling digital diagnosis of eye conditions and virtual simulation of various ophthalmic lenses and contact lenses within the testing device, potentially replacing older, manual refraction methods. [32] ZEISS subsequently led CREAL's Series B Prime funding round announced in October 2024. [26, 25]
• IMVERSE: CREAL has mentioned a collaboration with IMVERSE, another Swiss tech company, focused on enabling holographic collaboration in Augmented Reality. [12]

External Links

• Template:URL