Micro cap Innovative Eyewear jumps 60% on rollout of smart glasses, deal with HTC

Shares of micro-cap smart eyewear maker Innovative Eyewear, which has sought to challenge major tech firms like Meta in the AI wearables market, soared about 64% on Monday. The company announced the rollout of its glasses at one of the largest U.S. retailers, as well as a new alliance with Taiwanese tech giant HTC Corporation.

Innovative Eyewear, formerly Lucyd, soared about 64% on the Nasdaq on Monday to $1.12 per share, a more than one-month high. The market was reacting to two announcements from the company. First, it said its Lucyd Armor smart glasses would go on sale in October at more than 150 stores operated by “one of the largest big box stores in the United States,” which was not named in the press release.

Innovative Eyewear also announced an agreement with Taiwanese electronics producer HTC under which it will handle U.S. commercialization of HTC’s VIVE Eagle line of AI camera glasses. The micro cap plans to sell the glasses through its Lucyd.co online store. Customers will be able to order them with Innovative’s U.S.-based prescription lens fulfillment. The U.S. launch is scheduled for September, according to the press release.

Innovative Eyewear was founded in 2019 and was originally called Lucyd, the same name as its smart eyewear brand. The company later began producing products in collaboration with Nautica, Eddie Bauer, and Reebok, prompting the name change.

Innovative Eyewear is among the start-ups seeking to challenge major tech firms in the AI wearables market, the news and culture site the Observer wrote two years ago. Meta is the clear leader in the smart glasses market, Wired, a tech magazine, argued last autumn.

While the tech giant uses its own AI models in its products, Innovative Eyewear is betting on flexibility. Through the Lucyd app, users can choose whether to interact with OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic's Claude and switch between them during a conversation without losing context. “We envision that in the future, the Lucyd user can access several of the world’s most powerful AI models with a simple voice command,” Innovative Eyewear CEO Harrison Gross said.

Gross has also said the company differs from Meta in targeting a broader customer base. “The Meta product, in my view, is really geared towards the content creator niche,” Gross told the Observer. “If you’re a content creator making lots of Instagram videos, their product is better for that use case than ours is.”

Only one Wall Street analyst covers the stock. The analyst, from Maxim Group, has a “hold” rating, having previously rated it a “buy.” The downgrade came in June because of concerns about the company’s projected gross margins and the potential need for additional capital to support its operations and growth plans, GuruFocus wrote.

Later, in August, Innovative Eyewear reported that its net revenue for April-June rose 74% year over year, with quarterly revenue exceeding $1 million for the first time. Operating expenses during the same period fell 10% to $1.9 million, while the net loss narrowed 21% to $1.67 million, or $0.26 per diluted share.

The stock has a target price of $3 per share, implying 150% upside from the last close.