Tobii to raise $50 million to bring its eye-tracking smarts to VR and smartphones

Swedish eye-tracking company Tobii has announced plans to invest in “large-scale initiatives” involving smartphones and virtual reality and is seeking to raise SEK 400 million ($50 million) in a new rights issue of shares.

Founded in 2001, Tobii serves up tools that enable technology such as computers and smartphones to detect a user’s eye-orientation, thereby determining what they are looking at onscreen. Tobii’s smarts have been used by a number of big-name brands and are often used in the gaming realm, including in machines produced by Acer and Alienware. Acer has actually launched three monitors with Tobii’s eye-tracking technology built in, and around 40 games have been brought to market that support the nascent eye-tracking tech, including Tom Clancy’s The Division, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and Watch Dogs 2.