Company relocates to Palo Alto; will use funding to build and commercialize 3D augmented and virtual reality technology for retail, architecture, real estate, entertainment, and events.
PALO ALTO, CA – MARCH 24, 2015 — Augmented Pixels, a leading developer of interactive solutions with augmented and virtual experiences, announced that it has closed $1 million in seed funding led by The Hive, a co-creation studio focused on building data-driven applications. Augmented Pixels will relocate its headquarters to Palo Alto to closely work with the The Hive senior management team and leverage their infrastructure. Joining the Seed round are investors from Steltec Capital. Leveraging new developments in virtual reality and augmented reality, Augmented Pixels creates technologies and interactive solutions for global businesses to generate sales in retail, marketing, real estate, architecture, design, entertainment and events. The Augmented Pixels solution is in use by National Geographic, Harkus, Jayman, Zoom3D and many other customers.
“The use of interactive experiential augmented and virtual reality solutions to drive revenue is exactly the kind of business application that The Hive is looking to help build and launch ,” said T.M. Ravi, Managing Director of The Hive. “It is thrilling to see the success of Augmented Pixels so far, and we look forward to working actively with Vitaliy and his team to bring their technology to new markets and customer channels.”
As augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) grow increasingly prevalent on mobile devices, Augmented Pixels is already driving success metrics for its customers. The company’s proprietary technology can be used on all platforms: iPhone, iPad, Android, Oculus Rift, and Samsung Gear VR. Many global businesses are using Augmented Pixels’ applications to enhance their marketing and sales effectiveness. The investment will allow the company to concentrate on the development of new unique technologies for 3D scanning and creation of inexpensive high quality content for virtual reality.
“Since 2012 we have made a big step forward in creating augmented and virtual reality solutions for retail and real estate industries and can confidently say that our products surpass the rest of the market in terms of user experience,” said Vitaliy Goncharuk, CEO and co-founder of Augmented Pixels. “As the market for augmented reality and virtual reality technologies expands rapidly, many industries, including retail, real estate and interior design will be completely transformed and we will be the first to make this happen.”
Augmented Pixels has developed unique augmented reality tracking technology (http://bit.ly/1LQmQEH) to track images substantially better than other market players with no jittering, larger distance from the marker, different lighting conditions, etc.
Augmented Pixels’ key product set and current use cases include:
• Real Estate: IntuitHouse (http://bit.ly/1Hts1Uk) is an AR platform catalog of real estate projects for property developers and architectural firms. Propana Virtual Viewer gives buyers a preview of real estate properties. Modus Matrix (http://bit.ly/1xsSMbS) creates a virtual real estate overview of housing communities in augmented 3D
• Retail: ShowInRoom (http://bit.ly/1bpbwik) is an app that creates a virtual showroom in your apartment or office to experiment and preview furnishings
“Augmented Pixels has been a really dynamic partner for us, as we continue to realize the potential of augmented reality in the retail space, “ said Krista Newberry, SVP, North America Licensing, National Geographic. “We’ve been collaborating with them on some truly innovative projects since 2014, and they consistently deliver solutions that elevate the consumer experience for our products. Vit and his team have managed to exceed our expectations and deliver on time and on budget. We’re excited to continue working with the Augmented Pixels team, as we introduce new products at retail.”
“Since seed round in 2012, Augmented Pixels enhanced its platform for augmented reality that become the best in class for several use cases such as retail and real estate. That allowed to establish partnerships with key played within the industry and raise follow on round” – added Yevgen Sysoyev, managing partner AVentures Capital.
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About Augmented Pixels
Founded in 2010, Augmented Pixels is one of the leading developers of Augmented and Virtual Reality solutions for retail, real estate, interior design and event marketing. Our customers include National Geographic, Jayman, Paladone, Zum3D etc. The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA with development center in Odessa. Investors include The Hive, AVentures, partners from Steltec Capital and Plug-and-Play. For more information visit www.augmentedpixels.com.
About The Hive
The Hive believes that innovation in data technologies will help create a new generation of applications that will disrupt markets and create new business opportunities. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Palo Alto with related The Hive entities in India and soon in other regions of the world, The Hive is a studio that creates and launches startups and provides capital, company-building and technological resources to bring companies to market. Dedicated to utilizing the latest open source innovations and infrastructure, The Hive offers participants an in-house petabyte scale Big Data App Server that enables startups’ rapid product development and reduced time to market. The Hive runs a Big Data Think Tank, a community of over 6,500 entrepreneurs, business professionals and technologists who gather for weekly forum events to share thought leadership, knowledge and trends in Big Data. For more information visit www.hivedata.com.
About AVentures Capital
AVentures Capital is an international venture capital fund that invests into startups with potential to succeed on global scale and software development in Eastern Europe. Its target investment sectors include cloud, IoT, infrastructure, big data, SaaS, consumer internet, mobile and other software related projects with disruption potential. AVentures’ managing directors are Yevgen Sysoyev and Andrey Kolodyuk. For more information, please visit www.aventurescapital.com.