HapWare raises $1.5M to turn social cues into haptic signals
HapWare co-founders Jack Walters and Bryan Duarte are building ALEYE for blind and low-vision users, with first customer shipments planned for early 2027.
By RuntimeWire Staff · Published
Primary source: PR Newswire
Why it matters
HapWare is trying to turn a university capstone and a founder's lived experience into a shippable assistive wearable. The round funds that transition, while the separate $250,000 Mines investment connects the startup to its origins; neither TIME recognition nor beta testimonials establish how accurately ALEYE will work at scale.
Jack Walters and Dr. Bryan Duarte built HapWare around a problem Duarte knows firsthand: how to take part in a conversation when facial expressions and gestures are out of reach. HapWare said on October 19th that it had raised an oversubscribed $1.5 million pre-seed round and that its ALEYE wristband had been named to TIME's 2026 Best Inventions list.…
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.