On November 29, 2017, HTC VIVE revealed the names of the companies it has included on its list of global investments for the VIVE X VR/AR accelerator program. The list includes companies from the United States, China and Israel. The previous selection of companies, Batch II, was announced in March 2017.
Launched with the mission statement “help cultivate, foster and grow the global VR ecosystem by supporting startups and providing them with education, investment and mentorship”, VIVE X is currently the most active investor in virtual reality and augmented reality startups across the globe. The latest additions to the list of participants in the VR/AR accelerator program specialize in a wide range of product developments and applications which involve virtual and augmented reality technology.
Fast Growth in a Short Time Span
The VIVE X platform was officially launched in July 2016, and so far it has invested in over 80 companies, in various niches, which use virtual and augmented reality technologies. As a direct result of these investments, some of the VIVE X VR/AR accelerator program members have reached leadership positions in their specific market segment.
The latest companies added to the program are in various stages of development, ranging from startups to the companies with established market presence in their respective territory and area of expertise. The largest number of companies in this third batch of selections is based in China:
- In Beijing: Future Tech, Genhaosan, JuDaoEdu, Lenqiy, PanguVR, Pillow’s Willow VR Studios and Yue Cheng Tech;
- In Shenzhen: Antilatency, Configreality, Super Node, VRWaibao and Wewod;
- In Taipei: COVER, Looxid Labs, Red Pill Lab and VRCollab.
In the United States, HTC VIVE picked its partners from the established Silicon Valley tech startup incubator. The eight San Francisco-based companies included in the VIVE X VR/AR accelerator program are:
- Apelab – creator of the Spatial Stories software toolkit which allows anyone to create VR content without the need to know code;
- CALA – developers of a software solution created specially for the fashion industry;
- CloudGate Studio – the game development studio which produced The Brookhaven Experiment and Island 359;
- eLoupes – the team behind the real-time surgical imaging solution, now in use in various operating theaters;
- Nanome – a team which mixes VR and Blockchain technology to create an intuitive platform for immersive interactions with scientific data;
- Neurable – developers of a brain-computer interface which allows EEG interpretations for real-time interaction input;
- Quantum Capture – specializing in building AI-assisted virtual agents by combining realistic 3D characters, procedural animation systems and cognitive AI support;
- Quark VR – aims to develop the most advanced virtual and augmented reality untethered experiences through 4K per eye resolution and the capacity of delivering streamlined experiences to up to a dozen parallel users with the least possible latency.
The novelty of this third batch of VIVE X participants is the inclusion of two Tel Aviv-based companies, Astral Vision and Remmersive. In the words of Marc Metis, Vice President of HTC VIVE: “Our focus with VIVE X is to partner with companies across the globe that will solve industry pain-points and improve user experiences across AR and VR. This third batch is filled with incredibly talented and promising teams who are focusing on foundational technologies and key verticals including enterprise, healthcare, entertainment, and education.”
