From EIC Accelerator Grant to Defence: LightSpace's Multifocal AR

Augmented reality glasses project 3D images into the wearer's view, but almost all of them show those images at one fixed focal distance. For a surgeon looking at a patient 40 centimetres away, the eyes have to focus on two depths at once, which causes strain and fatigue. SIA Lightspace Technologies, a Latvian optics company, builds glasses that display images on several focal planes. In 2020 the European Innovation Council gave it €2,253,125 to turn the idea into a headset for medical education, surgical planning, use during operations and patient rehabilitation.

The headset was built. The medical market did not follow. Since 2024 LightSpace's announced customers have been defence companies, and since June 2025 it has belonged to the Finnish group Summa Defence, which said in August 2026 that it is "evaluating strategic alternatives" for the unit.

Where LightSpace Stands Now

LightSpace is a subsidiary of Summa Defence Plc, a Finnish defence and security group listed on Nasdaq First North in Helsinki and Stockholm. Summa announced on 3 December 2024 that it would buy all shares of Lightspace Group, Inc., the US parent of the Latvian company, through a share exchange at an undisclosed price, according to the announcement and Defence Industry Europe. Both put LightSpace's 2023 revenue at about €400,000 and its staff at about 25.

The purchase was one of several that had to close before Summa merged into the listed Meriaura Group. On 30 May 2025 Meriaura said the acquisition of "Lightspace Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries Lightspace Labs, Inc., SIA Lightspace Technologies, and Lightspace Labs LTD" had not yet been completed. The merger was executed on 9 June 2025, and Summa's 2025 half-year report counts Lightspace Group among the subsidiaries combined from 9 June 2025. The group's 2025 financial statements list LightSpace Group Inc, LightSpace Labs Inc and LightSpace Technologies SIA as 100% owned.

The parent is under pressure. Summa's auditor flagged a material uncertainty about the group's going concern when the 2025 accounts were published on 29 May 2026. In its half-year report of 27 August 2026 Summa said it had begun a strategic review on 15 May 2026 covering IntLog, LightSpace Group and Aquamec, and that it was examining "partnerships, financing options, ownership arrangements and other solutions" for them, according to Inderes. No sale of LightSpace has been announced.

The Technology: Several Focal Planes Instead of One

Conventional AR and VR headsets create depth by showing each eye a slightly different image on a single screen. The eyes turn inward to the virtual object's apparent distance but must keep focusing on the screen's fixed distance. CORDIS calls this the "vergence–accommodation (VA) conflict" and says it causes "eye strain, fatigue and sickness" and makes current devices unsuited to close work, which is most of what surgeons do.

LightSpace's answer is a stack of liquid crystal elements that can each switch electronically between transparent and light-scattering states, according to the project objective. A fast projector draws a slice of the 3D image on each element in turn, so the image sits at several physical depths and the eye can focus on it naturally. The company describes the result as "multi-focal" AR, and its website now pitches it for both healthcare and defence, from close-range medical visualisation to situational awareness and drone piloting.

What NGEAR 3D Promised, and What CORDIS Shows

The European Commission's list of selected companies places LightSpace Technologies, of Mārupe, among the grant-only "COVID19-related projects" of the 20 March 2020 cut-off of the EIC Accelerator pilot. No other company is listed for NGEAR 3D. The Latvian broadcaster LSM reported the €2,253,125 award on 8 June 2020.

The grant agreement was signed on 28 July 2020 and the project ran from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2022, on a total cost of €3,218,750, according to CORDIS. LightSpace kept €1,228,500 of the EU money. Two Latvian companies worked as third parties: EUROLCDS SIA of Ventspils, with €922,687.50, and HANSAMATRIX INNOVATION SIA, with €101,937.50. EuroLCDs, a liquid crystal display maker set up in 2011 with BaltCap financing and with Ilmars Osmanis on its board, according to BaltCap, was removed from the Latvian register on 8 May 2026, according to the Register of Enterprises open data.

The final periodic report says the liquid crystal optical elements, the image formatter board and the projection optics were redesigned, that six patent applications were filed, and that validation tests were carried out at Riga East Clinical University Hospital. It states that "all technical objectives of the project have been met which have resulted in finalized production-level device", and that two head-mounted display systems were sold to two AR application developers. It names no medical customer.

Four months after the project ended, Invest in Latvia reported that LightSpace had started small-batch production of the iG1050 glasses, "specifically designed for surgeons to use in the operating theatre", with two unnamed global medical technology companies among the first customers. No later announcement names a hospital, a medical device partner or a certified surgical product.

1. Multifocal AR headset for near workDeliveredProduction-level device per the CORDIS report; iG1050 small-batch production from October 2022.
2. Protect the technologyDeliveredSix patent applications filed during the project, per CORDIS.
3. Clinical validationPartlyTests at Riga East Clinical University Hospital reported; no published results.
4. Use in surgery, planning, education and rehabilitationNot achievedNo hospital customer, medical partner or certified medical product announced.

What LightSpace Achieved After the Grant

Money came mostly as loans from private investors. In October 2021 LightSpace raised an €800,000 convertible loan from Estonian and Danish business angels and existing shareholders, later increased to €1.25 million, and in May 2022 a €2 million pre-listing bridge loan that included the fund Ardelta, according to HansaMatrix and Invest in Latvia. HansaMatrix, through Lightspace Holding AS, then held 67.7% before dilution. On 14 March 2022 the company began a process to list on the TSX Venture Exchange in Toronto and raise at least €10 million, which HansaMatrix expected to take seven to eight months. No listing followed; by October 2022 HansaMatrix's stake was 53.4%, and the company was sold to Summa two years later.

The turn to defence began in 2023. LightSpace and Rheinmetall Electronics UK built a proof of concept that was shown at the UK Ministry of Defence's Army Warfighting Experiment, and in June 2024 they signed a partnership to develop and produce multifocal AR systems for military use, with a product called ACE-AR planned for launch later that year, according to Joint Forces News and the Summa announcement. Summa described LightSpace's products as AR glasses for armoured vehicle crew helmets and, in development, AR headsets for military drone operators.

Under Summa, LightSpace announced an order for multifocal AR headsets from an unnamed European defence group on 2 April 2025, without a value, and an investment in cleanroom production in Ventspils in June 2025. Summa's 2025 report says new dG1800 AR glasses were launched that year. On 4 March 2026 it announced a €500,000 order for a new high-resolution helmet-mounted AR headset from a "major European defense prime contractor", with deliveries planned for the second and third quarters of 2026, as also carried by Placera. Whether those deliveries were made is not public.

The Money

The standalone accounts filed in Latvia, published as open data, show a company that never sold much. Net turnover peaked at €880,950 in 2020 and was €329,239 in 2025. Most years ended in a loss; the largest, €5.27 million in 2023, includes a €3.88 million write-down of investments. The 2024 profit of €483,220 came with €2.57 million of other operating income, and the 2025 income statement shows a loss of €178,381. The filings do not explain either item.

The balance sheet changed shape in 2025: intangible assets fell from €3.86 million to €0.24 million, while receivables rose from €1.09 million to €3.71 million. Equity was €3.22 million at the end of 2025. Consolidated reports, which LightSpace filed up to 2023, gave higher turnover, €370,967 in 2023, and larger losses, €2.56 million that year, so figures for "LightSpace" differ depending on which entity a source counts.

LightSpace is not in the EIC Fund portfolio; its award was grant only and no EIC equity was involved.

Why Europe Should Care

The EU's first European Defence Industrial Strategy, presented on 5 March 2024, invites member states to make steady progress towards spending at least 50% of their defence procurement budget within the EU by 2030, and to strengthen security of supply. A Baltic company with its own display technology and production in Latvia fits that aim.

The healthcare case, which the EIC paid for, has not materialised in public. That is a common outcome for dual-use technology, and the grant did help build the optics that LightSpace now sells to defence customers. But the EIC selected NGEAR 3D among its COVID-19-related projects for medical use, and no medical product has reached hospitals.

The Verdict

LightSpace and Summa Defence have not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records, company statements and EU project data, linked throughout.