ABOUT US

At INOPTEC, we are passionate about vision.

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.

As modern open-minded innovators, we also belief in the common values of the European Union, so that we are deliberately fostering a European network of partners, investors and supporters.

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 that 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 amongst wearable-tech lovers and manufacturers in countries like Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Hong-Kong and many other countries, which we are going to address soon.

Despite all the useful benefits our products will render to society, we are fully aware, that we must protect our environment at the same time. We are not saying this because of our nature loving clienteles (mountain bikers, biohackers etc.) – the founder and CEO of INOPTEC himself has actively undertaken steps towards the preservation of the environment since 1990, and as a continuation of his own philosophy, he has declared, that INOPTEC should obey ESG rules towards sustainability as good as possible:
Therefore, we are going to offer only environmentally friendly and long-lasting products, e.g. by using bio-degradable plastics, creating long lifespan products (> 5 years) etc.
Further information will be provided.

Company History

2011 August

incorporation

2011 November

registration of „Independent Branch Establishment Germany“ under EU harmonisation law at the local court Munich.

2012 January

first consulting contracts (e.g. to restructure a LASER start-up company, KLASTECH GmbH, Dortmund).

2012 May

first hands-on calibration service for the German Army to calibrate “JULEM” (reference for LASER based range finders).

2014 June

first activities towards highly scalable start-up for vision enhancement systems (first ideas and patents formulated).

2014 October

first shareholder in seed-fund, which is the holding, KNOLL Capital Group Ltd.

2015 April

first significant in-payment into the very same seed-fund, which lead to the official starting date of INOPTEC in its role as a typical highly scalable start-up company, addressing a potential market of more than EUR 10bn.

2017 May

500k EUR seed-money exceed201ed since 2015; first offers from top B2B brands regarding series A round investments have been received.

2021 April

More than € 1 million has been raised from top CEOs across Europe, who can certainly be viewed as references as they understand our technology.

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.

Since Thomas understands all the INOPTEC relevant subjects, ranging from electronics design to financial controlling, mathematics, and law – he has recently (01.01.2023) been appointed to be the registered Managing Director and CEO 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 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 activities related to rendering services for venture capital firms (technical due-diligence, fostering their portfolio companies). Consequently, in 2014 he founded his own seed fund (KNOLL Capital Group Ltd, UK), which currently 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 the change from CEO to CTO/COO:
Ralf decided to spend more time on technology development, and fashion design (especially around #Art #TechFashion #FutureFashion #Transhumanism etc.) – and on moving the company forward, including team building 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 were working together for the past 20 years, this dual leadership spearhead was seen as an important improvement in the short history of INOPTEC.

Ralf heads the following departments:

Head of Research and Operations – #inopteclabs
to plan engineering strategies and instruct INOPTEC’s project management (PM) leaders in their respective fields, like electronics/optics & embedded software, 3D mechanical design & fashion, IT processes including online sales.

Head of the INOPTEC Academy – #inoptecacademy
to train new team members or representatives or whoever needs a more in-depth understanding of relatively complex systems, like the Vision Enhancement System and its applications.

Head of the INOPTEC Assessment Centre – #inoptecassessmentcentre
to ensure a high-quality selection and a standardised onboarding process, 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)

Mark Sheerin : (197x) BA in English and Philosophy from UCD Dublin, is a speaker of our investor relations team in Ireland. In this context, he also hosts events/roadshows including prototype demonstrations for interested partners, who could be suppliers, investors, or new team members.
He is also a copywriter for our English-speaking community.

IR CCO and representative for Ireland

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 Germany.

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 – 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.

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.

Team photo: Clare College Bridge, Cambridge, UK. From left to right: Wolfgang Gaerber, Ralf Knoll, Daniel Niederberger, Gwillem Mosedale, Martin Bayer.

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.

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.