ABOUT US
INOPTEC stands for innovation, optics and technology. – It is a decentralised European start-up company, run by experienced managers and engineers, primarily offering patented technology (B2B) and wearable consumer electronics (B2C) – both in the field of potentially life-saving human vision enhancement systems.
However, we also offer industry partners consulting and R&D services around our patented core technologies and know-how.
Regarding quick scalability, our focus is on our flagship product: self-adapting electronic eyewear.
+ Safety:
Perfect vision, day or night, is essential to safely operate vehicles, airplanes, machines, tools, computers, etc. by reducing the risk of mistakes, accidents and injury.
+ Performance:
Transhumanist technologies enhance our body’s capabilities, and INOPTEC’s intelligent bionic self-adapting sunglasses, smart goggles and anti-glare systems (AGS) are no exception.
+ Treatment & Recovery:
Light sensitive people e.g. light-triggered migraine sufferers, or after eye surgery (LASIK, cataract etc.) can tremendously benefit from the constant low-light illumination mode of our smart glasses.
Generally speaking, users can enjoy and benefit from a unique performance and safety advantage, in many fields of application: outdoor activities, automotive, aviation, industry 4.0, IoT, infotainment (AR, HUD), medicine, emergency rescue and personal safety.
From a global point of view, we have understood that highly disruptive and game-changing products, especially with a transhuman notion, are getting quickly accepted in technology-savvy cultures, so we are also fostering contacts in the USA, especially in California, but also in other well-known high-tech clusters like Boston, Massachusetts or New York.
We also found recognition among wearable-tech lovers and manufacturers in countries like Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, and many others, which we will address soon.
–
Despite all the valuable benefits our products will render to society, we are fully aware that we must protect our environment simultaneously.
We are not saying this because of our nature-loving clientele (mountain bikers, biohackers, etc.) – the founder of INOPTEC himself has actively undertaken steps towards the preservation of the environment since 1990 – and as a continuation of his philosophy, he has declared, that INOPTEC should obey ESG rules towards sustainability as good as possible:
Therefore, we will offer environmentally friendly bioplastic-based and long-lasting products (5-10 years product lifetime, without needing an update, and > 15 years shelf life). For example, by using P11 bioplastic, which is made from so-called ‘castor oil’, which stems from the Ricinus communis plant – provided by ARCEMA. Or by using natural Cellulose Acetate, a purely plant-based material composition made from cotton and wood.
Further information will be provided as soon as we start producing and selling these products.
Company History
first we started with services, not with products! – First consulting contracts: e.g. to restructure/turn around the LASER start-up company KLASTECH GmbH in Dortmund at MST.factory (later successfully sold to Power Technology Inc.).
first significant in-payment into KNOLL Capital Group Ltd. led to the official starting date of INOPTEC as a highly scalable start-up company, addressing huge ‘urgent need markets with no competitors‘: TAM > EUR 50bn | SAM > 30bn | SOM > EUR 1bn.
Team
Thomas Fickel : (1962) BSc. EEng German Armed Forces University, MBA Wales in Financial Controlling and Mathematics, independent financial advisor, mathematical market simulations (including profit maximisation), LL.B., LL.M. legal advisor for financial contracts.
Thomas understands all the relevant INOPTEC subjects, from electronics design to financial controlling/mathematics, and law – and on 01 January 2023, he was appointed as the registered managing director of INOPTEC Ltd.
For the past 20 years, he has been working hand-in-hand with the INOPTEC founder, inventor and CTO & COO Ralf Knoll – both are now constituting a highly competent dual leadership spearhead.
Managing Director, CEO & CFO INOPTEC Ltd.
Ralf G.J. Knoll : (1963) is a seasoned independent management consultant and technology expert with 20 years of experience. His background is in electronics, physics, photonics, economics, innovation management, entrepreneurship, start-up culture, coaching and psychology, corporate ethics and philosophy. Further honorary and voluntary/political work comprises: member of the Economic Advisory Council for the Bavarian Union (DE), Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), member of expert juries to judge high-tech start-ups (EU), member of SPIE, member of the Institute of Directors (IoD), founder of the Philosophy Round-Table Symposium in Munich (DE).
Ralf entered the start-up scene in 1997 and has, to date, been primarily involved in rendering services for venture capital firms (technical due diligence, fostering their portfolio companies). Consequently, he created his own fund, and in 2014, he started to issue shares from the financial holding company KNOLL Capital Group Ltd., which invests seed money in his start-up companies.
Academia: MSc in engineering physics (applied physics Dipl.-Phys. Ing.) in Germany jointly with electronics (EE) / telecommunications (1990); a second MSc in Optoelectronic and LASER Devices from Heriot-Watt and St. Andrews University, UK (1994); Harvard University Boston, MA, USA, Micro and Macro Economy and Corporate Ethics/Philosophy (1995).
01.01.2023 NEWS UPDATE – why Ralf changed from CEO to CTO & COO:
Ralf decided to spend more time on 1) technology development & fashion design [#Art #TechFashion #FutureFashion #Transhumanism] – and 2) on moving the company forward, including team building (HR) and company restructuring – especially after he created a new HQ in Ireland and a new R&D presence in Cambridge, UK.
Since Thomas Fickel and Ralf Knoll have been working together for the past 20 years, this dual leadership spearhead was seen as an improvement in the short history of INOPTEC.
Ralf heads the following departments:
Head of INOPTEC Labs (R&D) – #inopteclabs
to plan engineering strategies and instruct INOPTEC’s project managers (PM) in their respective fields [electro-optics & optics | electronics & embedded software | 3D mechanical design & fashion | IT processes & online sales].
Head of INOPTEC Academy (HR) – #inoptecacademy
to train new team members, representatives, or whoever needs a more in-depth understanding of the relatively complex vision enhancement system and its applications.
Head of INOPTEC Assessment Centre (HR) – #inoptecassessmentcentre
to ensure a standardised, high-quality selection & onboarding process for new team members, including fair and equal treatment.
Founder/Inventor, CTO & COO
Dr. Pierre A. Morgon : (1963) earned a doctorate in Pharmacy, a master’s degree in Business Law and an MBA and has held a variety of executive positions internationally (US, UK, FR, CH, DE, JP, MY). He is also an alumnus of INSEAD and IMD. Pierre’s focus is on the therapeutic and rehabilitative use of our remote-controlled smart goggles in medical applications as well as for the reduction of eye fatigue. Within our investor relations team, he serves as the main contact for the med-tech industry with regard to investment opportunities.
CSO – for health tech (EU)
Wilhelm Scholze : (1963) Dipl.-Kfm., University of Augsburg, CEFA, CIIA. Formerly institutional Equity Sales and Vice President at Reuschel & Co. and Merck Finck & Co. – Investor & Biz-Angel within INOPTEC, focus on Investor-Relations (IR) Communications, mainly in German-speaking countries (DE, AT, CH).
IR CCO
Markus L. Buening : (1961) Dipl.-Kfm. Economy and Marketing, with more than a decade of experience within the specs market (Rodenstock), expert for sales and purchasing strategies and product management, focus on ophthalmology.
CPO & CSO – for RX lenses & retail
Christoph A. Mueller : (1975) Graduate Engineer in Photo Engineering & Media Technology (Dipl.-Ing.(FH)), PMP® & PSM™ II certified, QMR & Six Sigma Black Belt holder, Senior Project Manager, formerly with Leica Camera AG, founder of MUELLER PM. in Germany, more than 12 years of professional experience in the area of Project and Quality Management, broadly experienced in managing all phases of complex product development projects in the field of high technology and international cooperations. Christoph’s focus at INOPTEC is on Project and Quality Management.
Head of Project Management
Martin Bayer : (1971) Dipl.-Ing.(FH) Mechanical Engineering, strong conceptual skills, focus on engineering of medical devices and plastic systems for high-volume production, CAD expert (SolidWorks & Creo Parametric), simulation, functional analyses, tolerance management, management of engineering services, IPMA Level D certified.
Update 01.02.2025: Martin has been appointed as Director of INOPTEC, he manages the company jointly with Thomas Fickel.
Hence, the German company registration seat has been moved from Zolling to Roedental, but remains in Bavaria.
Wolfgang Gaerber : (1973) EE Signal Processing, more than two decades experience in R&D from optical drives (Philips), tactical radio (SDR | Rohde & Schwarz), communication (Lucent-Alcatel), substation control (Andritz Hydro) to power inverters (SMA | Trumpf) and metering (Fluke).
Dr. Joerg Gross : (1970) EE Sensing, especially VIS & IR optical analogue sensing and amplification – for civil and military applications. Joerg has no public profile.
Local Representatives, Supporters and Development Partners:
Although INOPTEC is a decentralised European (DAO-inspired) high-tech company, it is essential to have local representatives, supporters, and partners within our main tech clusters in which we operate:
Maximilian Ge: (1984) has a solid academic background in the fields of math, software, material sciences and manufacturing – and is an experienced expert in entrepreneurship, business modelling, access to funding and much more – mainly around the University of Cambridge.
Max is a brilliant networker who is helping INOPTEC to stay in touch with the right people, programs, and institutions.
Keith Woodford : (1965). Over 40 years in the energy and machinery industries, working mainly in product development and R&D capacities. He has filed numerous patent applications and has been the CEO of several small startup companies. He brings a hugely varied technical skill set, from advanced 3D CAD and FEA/CFD analysis to electrical control systems, embedded software, and industrial automation software.
In addition to the varied commercial and business development experience, he comes to our team to help develop our UK presence.
Babita Devi : (1971) is a seasoned strategy consultant in the field of entrepreneurship, with an emphasis on business development, strategic marketing, and commercialisation.
She also worked in the eyewear and lens producer industry – for SOLA, later acquired by ZEISS – where she increased the sales of spectacles by 12% due to her marketing expertise.
As part of the INOPTEC Cambridge team – she is helping with further team building (HR), investor relations (IR) and local business development in general.
Ashish Vedhara : (1973) has a strong background in business development and sales.
Ash is based in Newcastle up Tyne and is helping INOPTEC build new relationships with potential partners – and maintaining an open dialogue with such partners, like investors, suppliers, marketing experts, brand owners, opticians, sales channels, and all other stakeholders – both in the UK and worldwide.
Mark Sheerin : (1983) holds a Diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directions and is a member of our investor relations team in Ireland. In his role, he serves as a speaker and host for events and roadshows, including prototype demonstrations for interested partners such as suppliers, investors, and potential team members. Additionally, Mark is a talented copywriter for our English-speaking community.
IR CCO and representative for Ireland
Tarmo Haermaorg : (1985) is an industrial product designer, experienced project manager/leader and quality control officer (QA/QC) for product development, including wearable tech products.
Tarmo’s focus with INOPTEC is project management (PM), especially during the product development phase – and coordinating our electronics and plastic suppliers towards the assembly lines for final production and packaging – since he is also well connected to local producers like INCAP, to name just one.
Andreas Petschar : (1969) Voted multiple times as financial advisor of the year – and was recognised by the top representatives of the Financial Service Providers Association.
As a co-owner, he represents INOPTEC in Austria and maintains contacts with other investors – as he is also a member of the Austrian Angel Investors Association (aaia), now known as invest.austria.
Advisory Board
Our neutral and independent experts bear witness to the feasibility and expediency of our anti-glare systems:
Prof. Dr. Pero Mićić : FMG | CEO FutureManagementGroup AG – Future Strategy & Management. Eltville, GERMANY.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pero_Mićić
Dr. Kurt Weingarten : PhD & MSEE Stanford, USA, Founder and CTO of GigaTera, CEO Time-Bandwidth-Products, Lumentum, company successfully sold, Director at EPIC, Advisor. Zurich, SWITZERLAND.
Hannes Sjoblad : MSc. Finance and Economics (SE), Biohacker / TED speaker / Singularity University / EPICENTER. CEO of Human Augmentation Services OÜ. Tallinn, ESTONIA. Stockholm, SWEDEN
Dr. Malte Koellner : MSc. Phys, Dr. Phys-Chem (DE), leading and award-winning patent lawyer (world’s leading patent strategists, IAM etc.) numerous publications; with Dennemeyer LUXEMBURG. Frankfurt, GERMANY.
Devin S. Standard : Global Marketing and Innovation Executive, American corporate brand builder, optical engineered solutions driver, innovative multi-faceted entrepreneur. Orlando, USA.
Our supporters and partners
Memberships
PRESS REVIEW
