INMO Technology has closed a Series C3 round that brings its full Series C haul to nearly RMB 1 billion (~$140 million at recent rates), and the Chengdu smart-glasses maker says it has formally started IPO preparation. The exclusive landed on 36Kr / Hard Krypton on September 9, citing Sichuan Revitalization Science and Technology Innovation Fund as the C3 lead with follow-ons from Jing’an Capital, Shibei Hi-Tech, Guangzhou Industrial Investment, and several Sichuan provincial platforms.
Hard Krypton reports the fresh capital is earmarked for next-generation spatial hardware, continued work on the company’s self-developed INMO AIOS stack, brand and channel build-out, and broader consumer reach. Revenue growth is described as remaining above 200% year over year for consecutive recent years — a company claim, not an audited public filing.
Why the raise matters in a crowded glasses year
INMO is one of the Chinese brands pushing lightweight, phone-independent AR/AI glasses rather than birdbath viewers tethered to a handset. Hard Krypton’s interview with founder and CEO Yang Longsheng frames the bet plainly: display-only “phone accessory” glasses are a dead end; the product has to stand alone as an agent that sees and hears with the wearer. That is the same strategic argument Meta, XREAL, Samsung, and Snap are fighting over this fall — with Meta Connect two weeks out and Android XR partners lining up consumer hardware.
Market context in the same report is aggressive. IDC is cited for global AI smart-glasses shipments rising more than 200% in 2025; RUNTO figures for China’s first half of 2026 put omni-channel smart-glasses volume at 909,000 units (+85.5% YoY) and revenue at RMB 1.88 billion (+98.7% YoY). Hard Krypton also notes display-equipped AI glasses reaching about 60% of sales mix in Q1 2026, and the all-in-one versus split ratio swinging from 9:91 in Q1 2025 to 47:53 in Q2 2026 — useful direction of travel, still secondary to unit economics and return rates.
Product stack and the IPO clock
INMO’s public catalog runs AIR (spatial AR, including the Air3 waveguide Micro-OLED pair debuted at IFA 2025), GO (translation and Agent hardware), and X (camera / fashion collaborations, including a WHL / Wang Jiaer Magic AI co-brand that Hard Krypton says moved 50,000 first-batch pre-orders with a North America debut in July). The company told Hard Krypton it is not building foundation models itself; AIOS sits above swapable model bases and focuses on spatial interaction, multimodal context, and Agent orchestration under glasses power and weight limits.
An IPO preparation announcement is not a listing date. No exchange, timetable, or prospectus was attached to the Hard Krypton exclusive. Treat Series C3 as runway and a signal that INMO wants capital-markets optionality while Meta, Google/Samsung, and Snap compress the consumer glasses calendar through late 2026. For a category still searching for a true mass-market SKU, nearly a billion RMB of Series C capital is a serious wager that integrated AI glasses can clear the “looks good, sits in a drawer” trap.
Sources: 36Kr / Hard Krypton (Series C3 + IPO prep exclusive), INMO About, INMO Air3 PR Newswire, IFA Berlin exhibitor profile.