ROCHESTER, N.Y.—Vuzix Corporation (NASDAQ: VUZI) reported significant growth its fourth quarter and full year financial results for the period ended Dec. 31, 2017. The Rochester-based company, which released its financial results on March 16, posted four consecutive periods of record quarterly revenue during 2017 and seven consecutive quarters of sequential quarterly revenue growth dating back to Q2 2016. Vuzix’s total revenues for the full year were $5.5 million compared to $2.1 million for the same period in 2016, an increase of 160 percent.

The increase in full year revenue was driven by increased sales of the company’s new M300 Smart Glasses, which was still in development in 2016, and by a 609 percent increase in engineering services due to development work related to a customized pair of smart glasses for Toshiba during 2017. Waveguide component revenue increased 220 percent in 2017 due to increased development activity by the company’s existing OEM customer engagements.

Gross loss from sales for the full year was a negative $0.7 million versus a gross loss of $1.2 million for the prior 2016 comparative period. The overall improvement was primarily the result of increased product mix margins and higher sales to absorb the relatively fixed manufacturing overhead and other costs, the company said.

"We are very optimistic about our outlook for significant growth in 2018, which should be bolstered by multiple large M300 Smart Glasses enterprise deployments and M300 Type-C Smart Glasses sales to Toshiba," said Paul Travers, president and CEO of Vuzix.

"The demonstration of our waveguide based Vuzix Blade Smart Glasses at CES and MWC has so far resulted in 10 new potential OEM partnership engagements related to our waveguide optics technology with some of the globe's leading corporations. The recent capital raises strengthened our balance sheet and strategic financial resources. This is important as it now allows the Company to more aggressively advance our next generation products, expand our waveguide manufacturing capacity as needed, and better negotiate with new major strategic customers as a stronger OEM device and optical components supplier," Travers said.

In the fourth quarter of 2017, Vuzix generated total revenue of $1.6 million compared to $0.6 million for the same period in 2016. Fourth quarter sales were propelled by record quarterly smart glasses revenue of $1.2 million, a 168 percent year-over-year increase as well as stronger quarterly waveguide components revenue due to increased activity related to the company's ongoing OEM project development engagements. Net loss for the fourth quarter of 2017 was $5.9 million, compared with a net loss of $6.3 million, for the fourth quarter of 2016.