The Swiss start-up Almer Technologies will announce today that it has been acquired by US technology company RealWear in a deal that the two companies say will reshape the market for industrial augmented reality (AR) devices. Almer, which has previously raised more than $8 million of funding, will retain its operations in Switzerland.
Forbes first profiled Almer earlier this year, revealing that it had signed a strategic alliance with TeamViewer, the German technology giant. TeamViewer has provided financial support for the RealWear acquisition, with Oliver Steil, the German company’s CEO, now set to join the RealWear board.
Almer is the company behind the Arc 2 headset, aimed at industrial and manufacturing companies that want to support staff who are maintaining and repairing plant and machinery. When wearing the headset, engineers are able to connect to expert technicians based in any location worldwide; the headset provides the technician with a view of what the engineer is seeing, enabling them to offer advice and support as the engineering work proceeds.
This value proposition represents a strong fit with RealWear, based in the US state of Washington, which also develops hands-free, wearable technology for frontline workers. The company specialises in rugged devices suitable for deployment in industrial environments and claims to have shipped more products in this market than any other company.
Sebastian Beetschen, the CEO of Almer, says the deal makes sense given his ambitions to scale the business, launched in 2021, as rapidly as possible. “We’ve executed successfully on what we set out to do, but now it’s time to take that global,” he argues. “It makes sense to do that with the global leader in headsets for the business-to-business market.”
Chris Parkinson, CEO of RealWear, says Almer provides a product that will sit neatly alongside its current range. “Almer’s innovative subscription-based hardware renting model will enhance our existing portfolio to offer more flexible and scalable solutions,” he argues. “And we have secured TeamViewer’s renewed commitment and backing, strengthening our longstanding collaboration with the leading software company in the enterprise AR industry.”
Indeed, both businesses say they see software development as the most exciting opportunity for the AR sector. While headsets such as the Arc 2 are technically proficient, they can deliver greater value when paired with new tools enabled by technologies such as artificial intelligence. “We’re working on software that effectively means the technology just disappears, rather than requiring you to stop what you’re doing to interact with it,” adds Parkinson. “It simply understands what you’re doing and enables you to get on with it.”
Practically speaking, that could mean developing software that can automatically diagnose maintenance or repair needs from the pictures sent to it via the engineer’s headset – and then provide step-by-step instructions for the work. Maintenance reports could also be completed and filed automatically, say.
Building out such functionality will be essential if RealWear and Almer are to build broader market acceptance for the value of AR solutions. While the AR market has been growing fast in recent times – with GrandView Research valuing at $84 billion this year and projecting growth of 38% a year until 2030 – the take-up of industrial solutions has lagged adoption in areas such as consumer, retail and healthcare. The pullback from the market of companies such as Magic Leap and Microsoft Hololens has also dented confidence.
“We think this deal sends a pretty strong signal about the value we see in this market,” adds Parkinson. “The involvement of partners such as TeamViewer underlines the potential of this technology for the frontline of enterprises.” The companies also point to their strong roster of existing customers, which include Coca-Cola, Ford and Samsung.
Almer’s was co-founded by Beetschen and Timon Binder in 2021, as a spin-out from a research project at the Swiss Institute of Technology. Both founders will join RealWear’s executive leadership team as part of today’s deal, the value of which has not been publicly disclosed.
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