Out Of liquid crystal technology IRID is available in 1200 point of sale in the world.
Autore: v.m.
A winning project born from a very powerful combination: passion and competence. Founded by the three Righi brothers: Federico, Roberto and Laura, the Italian "PMI innovativa" Out Of was born from their deep passion for outdoor sports.
The objective is clear and simple: to bring innovation in the field of sports optics. In 2020 they presented the first prototype of Electra, a ski goggle with a liquid crystal lens capable of adapting to light in less than 1 second, automatically and without using batteries. Presented on Mamacrowd, they launch their first crowdfunding campaign which raises 1 million euros after overfunding 4 times.
«In 2020, as soon as the campaign ended, we produced and delivered Electra, the first product on the market with our liquid crystal technology, but not only that». Federico Righi, CEO of the company, says. «Since then we have been inundated with requests from some of the largest groups in the world in the motorcycle helmets, luxury, optics and personal protective equipment sectors».
From 2021 to 2022 the company recorded a growth of 160%, closing 2022 with a turnover of €1.83 million. To date it has over 800 active B2B accounts corresponding to approximately 1200 points of sale and the growth trend is also confirmed for 2023.
«Our products with electronic lenses have won the main awards in the world both in the field of sport, such as the ISPO Award in 2021, and optics such as the SILMO d'Or in 2022». Explains Roberto Righi, CTO of the company.
Given the great success of Electra and to allow the technology to establish itself in any attractive field of application, the company has decided to divide the sports brand Out Of from the technology brand, IRID, developing them in parallel.
IRID will therefore be a branded technology, a so-called ingredient brand, known by the end public, but which operates only on the B2B channel and which promotes the technology and its various applications in every field on the same business model as Gore-Tex or Intel.
Out Of, however, will remain a sports and active lifestyle brand that develops and markets, through B2B and B2C channels, innovative products, including those that exploit IRID technology.
«Practicing an outdoor sport requires visual comfort common to many other areas, and IRID technology represents the ideal solution for managing rapid and sudden changes in brightness with a portable, lightweight solution with exceptional optical quality. We are talking about fields of application such as motorcycle helmets, traditional optics, personal protective equipment, military application, automotive and aeronautics». Roberto continues.
The value of the motorcycle helmet market is around 2.7 billion dollars and is estimated to reach 4.4 billion by 2030. In a similar market, historically devoid of major innovations, IRID has the potential to become the new standard and entirely covering the high-end helmet range.
Furthermore, today in Europe more than 50% of the population wears eyeglasses, giving the traditional optics market a global value of around 45 billion dollars and which is estimated to reach 65.5 billion by 2030. «In short, despite prudentially, excluding from the count the applications that require longer development and particular certifications such as the military one and not completely covering the ophthalmic market, the value of the application markets for our technology exceeds 25 billion dollars». Federico adds.
At the moment the company's focus is to bring IRID technology to all possible applications thanks to strategic partnerships with the most important players in the world in their respective fields.
On September the company inaugurated the new offices of the Brescia headquarters, also presenting three new products: a new model of sunglasses, which covers the incredible S1-S4 range at an unprecedented speed, the visors for motorcycle helmets with IRID technology, which have the potential to revolutionize the motorcycle helmet market and last, but not least, the first prototypes of ophthalmic lenses with IRID technology.
The various applications of the technology count 6 patents already approved and extended internationally and 3 pending, but the development of the various applications as well as the patents are in constant development.
To support this important growth plan, Out Of has launched a second equity crowdfunding campaign on Mamacrowd which has already raised over 1.7 million euros in the first week.