Meta announced the acquisition of Dutch smart eyewear company Luxexcel, which uses 3D printing technology to create prescription lenses for glasses. The financial terms of the deal remained undisclosed.

Luxexcel is a pioneer in 3D printed lenses, using a suite of proprietary hardware, software, materials, and processes to create customizable lenses through their patented “Luxexcel VisionPlatform.” As of late, the company focused its efforts on the production of smart lenses, which can be printed with integrated technology, including holographic film and LCD displays.

The acquisition is expected to leverage Luxexcel’s expertise with augmented reality to produce prescription AR glasses in the future. The two companies have reportedly worked together in the past on Meta’s AR research initiative, Project Aria. This announcement follows Meta’s unveiling of Ray-Ban Stories in September 2021, a pair of smart glasses featuring integrations with WhatsApp and Facebook.

Overall, this follows Meta’s broad strategy of acquiring smaller players within the extended reality space and has reiterated its commitment to the space in mid-December by allocating 20% of its investments toward the Metaverse. This followed reports of Meta cutting back on its investments in Reality Labs, which houses its extended reality and metaverse activities in June 2022.