While Google Glass hasn’t had the impact that Google had likely hoped it would, a fresh funding round of $16 million raised
by Augmedix today suggests it’s far from dead. Augmedix is a startup
that launched in 2012, with the aim of providing medical professionals
with a Glass-powered electronic health record solution: A Series A round
from the company co-led by its original seed investors Emergence
Capital and DCM Ventures indicates that while consumer confidence in
Glass may not yet exist, other parts of the market are very much
invested in its continued development.The total funding Augmedix has raised to build specifically for Google Glass now amounts to more than $23 million, thanks to a $7.3 million Seed round raised in 2014. The startup has deployments roll out in 10 states in the U.S., and has over 100 employees thus far, including 80 in its SF HQ. The new funding will help it hire even more as it continues to roll out head-mounted patient information systems for doctors.
While some have suggested that Glass developers are abandoning the platform in droves, it’s clear that’s not universally the case. Augmedix doesn’t mention any change in its platform strategy in its announcement of this funding news, and Pristine, another Glass-focused startup deploying the hardware in medical institutions, raised $5.4 million in its first funding round in September. Whatever else is happening with developer appetite for Glass, in specific verticals like healthcare, its potential merits seems as strong as ever.
Google also seems to be keen to continue working on what might still be its most ambitious hardware project: Rumors of an Intel-powered version cropped up late last year, and in conversation with TechCrunch, Google’s Astro Teller expressed continued confidence in Glass, though he conceded that the consumer market may not be where it achieves success.