A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting start-ups globally
RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – AUGMENTED REALITY
- WayRay, a maker of holographic navigation system for cars, raises $18M from investors including Alibaba, SAIC, and Sistema. Link
- Virtualitics, a developer of AR/VR platform for data visualization & analytics, raises $4.4M in Series A funding from investors including The Venture Reality Fund. Link
- Lightform, a developer of a computer made for projected augmented reality, emerges from stealth mode with a $2.6M in Seed funding from investors including Lux Capital, Seven Seas Partners, and National Science Foundation. Link
- Upskill raises undisclosed amount in Series B funding from Boeing, GE Ventures and others. Link
- Avegant announces new display tech to create light fields for enabling AR. Link
- ODG launches hardened AR smartglasses for hazardous jobs. Link
- Facebook’s Building 8 division reportedly working on projects like augmented reality, brain scanning technology. Link
SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND
Lightform (2014, SF) – 3D scanner for projected augmented reality.
LEADER BOARD – AUGMENTED REALITY
Display Medium – Screen-based
Vuzix (1997, Rochester, IPO) – Provides display and wearable devices to consumer, commercial and entertainment markets. Went public in 2010.
DigiLens (2003, Sunnyvale, $74M) – Developer of waveguide technology for AR displays. Backed by Crescendo Ventures, Sony, Foxconn, Continental, Panasonic, and others.
Meta (2012, Redwood City, $73M) – Manufactures AR headsets with holographic displays. Backed by YCombinator, Horizon Ventures, BOE Technology Group.
Lumus (2000, Rehovot, $64M) – Developer of augmented reality wearable displays. Backed by Quanta Computer, HTC, Motorola Ventures, Shanda Group and others.
ODG (1999, SF, $58M) – Augmented reality smart glasses provider. Backed by Shenzhen O-Film Tech, Vanfund Urban Investment ＆Development, 21st Century Fox and others.
Display Medium – Projection-based
Magic Leap (2011, Miami, $1.39B) – Develops AR computing platform and head mounted device. Backed by Alphabet (Google), Qualcomm Ventures, KPCB, Andreessen Horowitz.
WayRay (2012, Lausanne, $34M) – Developing holographic navigation systems for cars. Backed by Alibaba, SAIC, and Sistema.
Navdy (2013, SF, $26.5M) – Provides projection display for cars, paired with voice and gesture control. Backed by Qualcomm Ventures, Foundation8, Promus Ventures, Upfront Ventures, Wareness, Eniac Ventures.
Interactivity enablers
uSens (2013, San Jose, $30M) – Provides inside-out 3D hand tracking as well as head position tracking. Backed by IDG Capital, Morningside Ventures, Stone Point Capital & others.
Development Tools
Blippar (2011, London, $99M) – Visual discovery browser using augmented reality and image recognition. Backed by undisclosed investors. Acquired Layar, AR browser provider in 2014; and Binocular, AR virtual try-on app developer in 2015.
Infinity AR (2006, Petah Tikva, $75M) – Provides AR content development platform. Filed IPO in 2009, went back to becoming private after investments from Alibaba and Sun Corporation in November 2016. Backed by Alibaba, Sun Corporation, Singulariteam Fund, Platinum Partners.
Applications – Medical
Augmedix (2012, SF, $63M) – Developing Google Glass powered solutions for doctors. Backed by Rock Health, Emergence Capital Partners, DCM, Great Oak Venture Capital, Sutter Health, Dignity Health and others.
Applications – Industrial
Upskill (2010, Herndon, $29M) – Enterprise software platform for industrial wearable smart devices. Backed by NEA, GE Ventures, Salesforce, Clark Enterprises.
Applications – Retail
Marxent (2011, Dayton, $13M) – Provider of AR & VR solutions for visual commerce. Backed by Detroit Venture Partners, Stage 1 Ventures.
Applications – Education
zSpace (2007, SF, $57M) – Develops AR devices that provide an interactive virtual holographic platform. Previously called Infinite Z. Backed by In-Q-Tel.
NeoBear (2009, Shanghai, $56M) – Develops Augmented Reality toys and mobile apps that help children to learn words and languages. Backed by GGV Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Sinolink Securities, Haitong Kaiyuan Capital and Liuhe Capital.
Osmo (2013, Palo Alto, $36M) – Hardware-based iPad games for kids. Backed by Accel Partners, Upfront Ventures, K9 Ventures, and others.
Applications – Entertainment
8i (2014, Wellington, $41.5M) – Holographic Virtual Reality. Backed by RRE Ventures, Boost VC, Samsung Ventures and others.
Leaderboard includes all the top funded, IPO and successfully running bootstrapped companies along with their location, founding year and funding amount
For latest update, visit Augmented Reality feed.