super ventures – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

October 2, 2018

VR Awards Announces First Annual Investors Lunch

The VR Awards are one of the most prestigious awards in the immersive technology space, dedicated to achievement in virtual reality (VR). Now the organisers of the VR Awards are working with companies and brands including AWE, Super Ventures and Digital Catapult to launch the inaugural VR Awards Investors Lunch which will precede the Awards ceremony.

The VR Awards is recognised as one of the largest events celebrating achievement in VR, and combines the awards ceremony and dinner with year-round initiatives to promote VR and immersive technology.

The Investors Lunch will take place at 12:30pm on Tuesday 16th October and will be an exclusive event for international technology investors. The lunch will provide an opportunity for guests to meet with other investors and discuss investment funds and strategies as well as broker new deals. After the lunch, investors are invited to the VR Awards ceremony.

Executive producer of the VR Awards, Daniel Colaianni: “At the VR Awards, we endeavour to push the boundaries of what we can achieve, both in Virtual Reality and in reality. This is the logical next step in evolving our brand further and creating a greater conversation about what is possible in the world of XR.”

Tom Emrich of Super Ventures commented: “Events like the VR Awards and the Investors’ Lunch are critical to the overall success of the XR (AR/VR/MR) industry, especially at such an early stage. We are proud to support an event that brings startups and investors together to encourage investment in this next wave of computing.”

Rebecca Gregory-Clarke, Lead Technologist, Immersive Technology, at Digital Catapult added: “We’re pleased to support the Investors Lunch, bringing together international investors to encourage and stimulate investment into leading-edge immersive technology. This builds on our work, through our Augmentor programme, of helping innovative and commercially-focused immersive companies with technical and business mentorship, access to state-of-the-art facilities and support to pitch their ideas to investors.”

VR Awards 2017 press-photo-winners

Further information on the VR Awards can be found on the official website. For future coverage on the VR Awards and other VR-related events, keep checking back with VRFocus.

May 17, 2018

Eight Finalists For Global AR Online Pitch Revealed

Sometimes in order for something to truly succeed and create something bigger you have to work together. This is true in any line of business, even the immersive technology sector. After all where would the Gear VR – arguably virtual reality’s (VR’s) most prolific headset – be, without the partnership between both Samsung and Oculus? It’d certainly be a very different industry.

Global AR Online Pitch Logo Near the end of last month VRFocus reported on the Global AR Online Pitch, an event put together by three of the biggest investment names in the field of augmented reality (AR): The GFR Fund, Super Ventures and The Venture Reality Fund (a.k.a The VR Fund). Open to submissions from all around the world, the aim of the Global AR Online Pitch’s goal was to give an unprecedented opportunity to developers to secure funding for their AR related developments. Now, some 241 submissions later, eight finalists have been announced.

They are:

ARwall – A Los Angeles based company. It has created the first AR display that requires no headset, goggles or smart device.
Cortex Core – Created by Binary Bubbles, Inc., is a codeless content management system that enables IP owners to maintain a strong and personal relationship with their consumers through always-on, world-aware digital AR characters.
DeepAR – A powerful face-tracking, face FX and deep learning SDK that allows any app to integrate advanced, Snapchat-like face lenses in hours. The most advanced AR Advertising SDK on the market, DeepAR currently powers over 50 million users each month through its integration with top ad networks.
JigSpace – Creates and shares interactive, 3D knowledge for anything.
Infiniverse – Connects the entire world’s digital space into a single, persistent, virtual AR world. The augmented reality land registry, content distribution platform and marketplace runs on the blockchain.
Insider Navigation (INS) – The first company that offers augmented-reality based indoor positioning and navigation for mobile devices.
PLNAR – An Austin, TX, AR startup that optimizes the settlement of home interior property claims (flood, water, fire). PLNAR generates fully measured, detailed 3D models and material summaries of rooms using augmented reality. (Read more about them here.)
SentiAR – Developing the first real-time AR software platform for interventional procedures on the HoloLens. Initially focused on catheter ablation procedures treating cardiac arrhythmia, the company aims to significantly change clinical practices.

Not only will all eight be pitching to investors, they will also be a part of the forthcoming Augmented World Expo (AWE) 2018, taking place in Silicon Valley from May 30th to June 1st. Taking to the stage to present to attendees.

“There is a huge advantage for companies to be able to pitch key investors without spending the time and money required to go on a roadshow,” commented GFR Fund CEO Teppei Tsutsui. “The AR Online Pitch event puts every startup on a level playing field and lets the entrepreneurs, and their vision and innovation, speak for itself.”

VRFocus will continue to bring you news on the event as well as updates from AWE 2018 at the end of the month. Be sure to look out for those.

April 22, 2018

Investors Holding Contest For Best Augmented Reality Pitch

Twenty-seven venture capital funds and investors have come together to hold a contest to find the best augmented reality (AR) pitch from impressive startups. The content is dubbed as the Global AR Online Pitch Event and the winning contestant can be sure to gain investment from one or more of the partaking groups.

Global AR Online Pitch Logo

Global AR Online Pitch Event is made up of The GFR Fund, Super Ventures and The Venture Reality Fund (The VR Fund) who are all come together to put on the Global AR Online Pitch Event. Though the deadline for submissions is April 23rd, the contest is still to run until late May as a number of different stages of review must be carried out until the winner is announced live on stage at the Augmented World Expo (AWE) USA 2018 in Silicon Valley on May 31st, 2018.

After submission period ends and the applications have been reviewed, eight startups will be selected as finalists to present at the online pitch event, which will take place live before investors. Each finalist will be giving five minutes to pitched, followed by two minutes of questions and answers from the selected panel of investors. The finalists will also deliver live pitches at AWE USA 2018 as well, in what can only be guessed to be in front of a live audiences as well.

The finalists will be given some support though, as once selected each finalist will work closely with a mentor to solidify their final presentation prior to the online event. There will also be constructive feedback from key investors and venture capital funds delivered to each finalists.

In order to participate in the Global AR Online Pitch Event, startups must meet the following criteria:

Pre-seed, seed or Series A investment
Working on a product(s) in AR space
Has at least an MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

The amount of investment that is up for grabs for the winner is not known yet, but given that each of the investors will contribute towards the amount it is expected to be a large amount. With the recently launch of ARKit and ARCore making it more accessible then ever before to build and deploy AR experiences to the mobile market, it will be interesting to see what pitches come from the Global AR Online Pitch Event. Those looking for more details or to get a last minute submission in can do so at the events website.

VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest from the Global AR Online Pitch in the future so stay tuned for more.

January 31, 2017

ResearchVR Episode 32 – Augmented Hearing with Tom Emrich from Super Ventures

This week on ResearchVR we dig deep into advanced hearing devices that go way beyond hearing aids. Our guest is a visionary in the field of Augmented Reality, Tom Emrich from Super Ventures.

Tom Emrich, a funding partner at Super Ventures, is the man bringing AR to reality through investment and community building. In Super Ventures he is focusing on augmenting all of our senses – not only vision.

Episode Preview

Augmented Reality is an exciting topic. With significant players such as Microsoft betting big on it, the technology is getting ready for mass market. However, we hear only about visual information augmentation. What about auditory information? Does anything happen there? As it turns out, this field is quite active. And it sounds like these types of gadgets are going to be the next input & output game changer for AR.

If you were to talk to a human in real life and he would ignore you, it feels awkward, like you did something wrong. And I think that’s where we are with our AR.

There are many concepts that augmented hearing is prompting us to think about. For one, let’s imagine new types of interfaces, such as VUI – Voice User Interface. At the moment, with Siri, Cortana, Alexa and others, it feels awkward, and therefore unpleasant. Contrary to other types of interfaces, VUI is more of a conversation than just a substitution for button pressing. Speaking, and therefore voice commands, require more flexibility of the system – both in understanding the input and providing an output. I want Siri to answer me just like I expect from another human. And if is cold or responds with the wrong emotion in its voice, it often sounds like sarcasm or punishment.

All in all, as Tom underlined, the world is a new computer. We need to create access to it – to see, to hear, to smell, to touch. Everything has to be connected. We are at the point where nodes of the network are there – HMDs for vision,”hearables” for audio, gloves for haptics and so on – but the network itself is not there yet.

Learn more in Episode 32 – Augmented Hearing with Tom Emrich from Super Ventures. You can also subscribe this podcast via your favorite app via the subscription button below.

Tagged with: hearables, ResearchVR, super ventures, VR