Vancouver-based tech company RealWear will become a publicly traded company this year and will also merge with Seattle-based Cascadia Acquisition Corp., according to a news release from both companies.
The company will retain the name RealWear and is expected to trade on the Nasdaq.
RealWear, which offers wearable computer headsets with cameras to allow hands-free training through assisted vision similar to augmented reality, had a pre-transaction value of $323 million, according to the news release. The company has over 5,000 users of its technology and over 70,000 of its units sold.
In 2022, RealWear had a gross margin of 63 percent, which it plans to expand through an increasing emphasis on a cloud platform, according to its press release. Its 2022 revenue was about $20.5 million.
“RealWear’s mission is to engage, empower, and elevate frontline professionals around the world and across industries to increase productivity and enhance safety,” said Andrew Chrostowski, Chairman and CEO of RealWear. “This combination with (Cascadia Acquisition Corp.) will accelerate our ability to deliver new assisted reality products, services, and solutions at scale that transform the way people work today, tomorrow and into our sustainable future.”
Since its founding in 2017 in California and its move to Vancouver that year, RealWear has been adding to the number of Fortune 500 customers that use its products and also its investor funding. The company said Monday that 41 of the Fortune 100 are RealWear customers.
Among the number of companies who use RealWear for training, Chinese utility State Grid in 2019 partnered with RealWear. State Grid supplies power to an estimated 1.1 billion consumers.
The most recent private investment came from Foundry Group for $23.5 million in June, and in 2019 RealWear earned $80 million in funding.
RealWear had 110 employees in 2019, and 52 worked in the Vancouver office, at 600 Hatheway Road.
The company’s announcement to go public is one in a growing number of businesses in Vancouver in the past few years, including ZoomInfo and Absci. There are currently seven publicly traded companies headquartered in Vancouver.
