Roman Axelrod
The story
Roman Axelrod grew up soldering circuits with his grandfather, an engineer who helped build some of the first computers in the 1950s and taught him that anything could be built. He went on to build companies in computer vision, esports and fintech, with three exits before XPANCEO. While selling his last company he asked himself what he wanted to build next, and became convinced the next computer would sit on the eye. Fitting electronics onto a lens needed materials only an atom thick, so he sought out specialists in two-dimensional materials and recruited the physicist Valentyn Volkov to co-found the company. They bootstrapped until they had a working prototype and a patent. In 2023 XPANCEO raised a $40 million seed round led by Opportunity Venture (Asia), followed in July 2025 by a $250 million Series A at a $1.35 billion valuation, the largest Series A in MENA. The lens is still in development, with human trials ahead.
