XPANCEO Opens Extended Smart Contact Lens Laboratory During GITEX Global 2025

XPANCEO, a Dubai-based deep-tech company developing the next generation of computing via smart contact lenses, opened its newly extended R&D laboratory as part of the official Expand North Star side event program at GITEX Global 2025.

This significant expansion follows XPANCEO’s recent $250 million investment round at a $1.35B valuation, which became the largest Series A ever raised in the UAE as well as the MENA region, the largest globally in AR/VR and wearables, and among the top three in hardware history.

The open-lab event marked the first public unveiling of XPANCEO’s extended facilities, including a biosensing laboratory focused on multi-sensor health tracking and the latest equipment advancing breakthroughs in optics, photonics, and materials science. Attendees participated in guided tours, met XPANCEO’s top scientists and founders, and explored how the company transforms research into working prototypes.

The event combined lab visits with a lecture program aimed at bridging deep tech and academia. It was held in partnership with Middlesex University Dubai, the first overseas campus of Middlesex University London (UK), located in Dubai Knowledge Park.

XPANCEO’s experts shared key challenges in powering ultra-small devices, integrating AR systems into contact lenses, and navigating the path from prototype to clinical validation and market readiness.

In addition to XPANCEO’s R&D team, the program featured invited speakers from leading institutions and companies, including Zachary Cairns, Specialist Optometrist and Managing Partner at Cairns & Co Specialist Optometry Center; Professor Fehmida Hussain (DPhil, SFHEA, CITP FBCS), Deputy Director of Engagement and Student Experience, Head of Computer Engineering and Informatics (CEI), Head and Founder of the Centre for Innovation in Human Experience (CIHx), Head and Founder of the MDX Innovation Hub (MIH) at Middlesex University Dubai; and Dr. Engie Bashir (PhD, SFHEA), Senior Lecturer of Computer Engineering and Informatics, Campus Programme Coordinator of Undergraduate Computer Engineering and Informatics programmes, Co-chair of the MDX Innovation Hub at Middlesex University Dubai.

The initiative reflects XPANCEO’s ongoing commitment to science advocacy, transparency, and open innovation. By inviting the public and the academic community into its research environment, the company plans to make deep tech more accessible and offer firsthand insight into how foundational technologies are being built for the next generation of human–computer interaction.

XPANCEO continues to advance its vision of uniting AR interfaces, health monitoring, and biomedical sensing into a single smart contact lens, bringing the world closer to AI-powered XR computing as the ultimate interface of the near future.