Earlier this month VRFocus caught up with Spatial – which is building a collaborative augmented reality (AR) platform for enterprise use cases – at CES 2020, with the company showcasing its latest version on Microsoft’s HoloLens 2. Today, Spatial has announced the completion of a new Series A funding round, securing the company a further $14 million USD towards development.
The was led by WhiteStar Capital, iNovia and Kakao Ventures with Instagram Co-Founder Mike Krieger, and Zynga founder Mark Pincus continuing their support. The investment round brings Spatial’s total funding up to $22 million, enabling the company to continue its vision whilst looking towards a fully released product later in the year.
“Last year we saw a strong demand to collaborate in AR/VR from more than 25% of the Fortune 1,000, and we announced our first wave of customers such as Mattel, Purina/Nestle and BNP Paribas,” said Spatial Co-Founder and CEO Anand Agarawala in a statement.
Spatial is making a platform-agnostic tool for people to collaborate in real-time, wherever they are in the world. Supporting a range of devices including Microsoft HoloLens, Oculus Quest, Magic Leap One, Qualcomm XR2, Android/iPhone mobile device or desktop, Spatial’s platform offers a range of tools, from being able to put sticky notes on a wall to importing 3D models which other users can grab and resize.
“Spatial’s mixed-reality solution will be a key part of the future of work,” adds Instagram Co-Founder Mike Krieger. “They’re taking us beyond everyday tools like Zoom and Slack and pointing the way towards what conferencing & collaboration can be like if they were invented today and I’m excited to support the journey.”
One of Spatial’s more unique features is its ability to create 3D avatars of each user from a 2D photo using AI. Hands can be tracked using modern hardware and as features like eye-tracking, lip-tracking and more become more ubiquitous, they’ll also feature.
Spatial featured during the HoloLens 2 launch at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019. As the company continues to grow and expand its product and presence, VRFocus will keep you updated on the latest announcements.