Hello FOSS United,
This community means a lot to us and we felt we should post an update since we last exhibited at MangaloreFOSS. A lot has happened since then, so here it is.
We Took XenevaOS to the Global Stage
We got the chance to exhibit at Augmented World Expo (AWE) Asia 2026 - Asia’s largest expo for XR/AR/VR and the biggest community globally for our domain. For two college students who started this as a GitHub project, standing there felt surreal. Here’s a breakdown of what actually happened and what we took away from it.
Recognition
For the first time, we were being treated as a startup building a viable product and not just two college students building a cool project. We were put up against the same benchmarks as Meta and AndroidXR, which was honestly pretty exciting. The gap between us and them was pointed out too, and we appreciated that honesty. But being on the same scale at all, at this stage, meant something to us.
Industry Validation
This was probably the most valuable part of the trip. We will be transparent here with both the good and the bad.
XenevaGlasses (our hardware play) got a skeptical reception - not because the idea was weak, but because the experts felt that at our current stage, without resources or manufacturing experience, going deep into hardware would make our small startup bleed whatever we have.
XenevaOS was a completely different story though. The response was really positive across the board. Some people were astonished we were going up against AndroidXR, SnapOS & Meta . Others straight up said we’d become billionaires (we’re taking that with a grain of salt). However, the consistent expert advice was: keep building the OS, push a mature version out as fast as possible, and find a hardware partner rather than building the glasses yourself.
Gavin Newton-Tanzer, President of AWE, gave us direct personal advice to double down on software and partner with a Smart/AR Glass manufacturer rather than trying to manufacture ourselves. We’re taking that seriously.
Partnerships
This is where things get genuinely exciting.
We had previously partnered with Open Horizon Robotics to research and deploy our kernel on robots. At AWE, we picked up significant interest from companies across the US, UAE, UK, Japan, Vietnam and China - covering XR application development, 3D asset creation and XR experience design.
Most importantly, we met 3-4 glass manufacturing companies who are interested in deploying XenevaOS on their devices. Talks are ongoing with regular meetings and technical exchanges, and the outlook is positive. We’ll name them once partnerships are finalised.
On the hardware side, we also connected with three companies who would support XenevaGlasses if we choose to go that route, covering injection molding, waveguides and optics respectively. An Indian company, ElecBits, with whom we have a good relation, has also come on board for PCB design and component sourcing. So if we ever do build the glasses, the supply chain does exist in our network.
Network
Our network is now international within our domain. We have real relationships with people working in the XR industry across multiple countries. For a two-person team that was in a college hostel not that long ago, that still feels a bit strange to say.
What’s Next
Ori Inbar, CEO and Co-Founder of AWE, got a live experience of XenevaOS and we pitched our project to him. He was positive, told us to keep gaining experience, and said we should apply for the Builder’s Program at AWE USA - the global flagship event for XR. Now that is the next event that we’re really excited about.
The immediate task for us is clear: sustain the partnerships and ship a mature OS. That’s not a small thing. We don’t have a full team yet and we don’t have the required resources just yet but we will figure out a way to get it. We know what needs to be done and we’re not looking back from here onwards.
A Word of Thanks
Me and Manas find ourselves talking about this a lot. None of what we’ve achieved till this date would have been possible without FOSS United and Zerodha. The grant, the community, the early belief when we were just two students with a GitHub repo - it gave us the foundation to stand at a place like AWE and be taken seriously.
We’re genuinely grateful for that. And we know the best way to give back is to actually build the thing.
The journey has been more than we expected and we look forward to what comes next, and to sharing it with this community.
Thank you.
Ayushmaan
Xeneva