Madrona Venture Group investors watch Pixvana’s pitch in virtual reality. (Photo via Pixvana)
What better way to pitch a virtual or augmented reality startup idea than to strap a bunch of headsets on the heads of venture capitalists and turn a basic presentation into an immersive experience that demonstrates the potential of your company’s technology?
That’s what Pixvana did — and it worked.
The Seattle startup today announced a $14 million Series A investment led by Paul Allen’s Vulcan Capital, with participation from new investors like Raine Ventures, Microsoft Ventures, Cisco Investments, and Heart Ventures. Previous backer Madrona Venture Group, which led the company’s $6 million seed round, also joined.
Pixvana has developed a cloud-based end-to-end platform called SPIN Studio that helps virtual reality filmmakers edit, process, and deliver video at 8K resolution. Many storytellers are forced to use desktop tools that weren’t built with VR in mind, creating problems like long rendering times, limited editing capabilities, and less-than-ideal resolution. Pixvana’s SPIN Studio utilizes cloud infrastructure and VR-centric editing software designed from the ground up. Early customers range from sports teams to restaurants to media companies that are starting to film and produce VR content.
Pixvana, founded in late 2015, calls its software “the platform for XR storytelling,” which encompasses virtual reality, augmented reality, 360-video, and other next-generation video experiences.
“There is tremendous opportunity in the XR video space and it is clear that outstanding content and storytelling tools will define this new medium,” Stuart Nagae, general partner at Vulcan Capital, said in a statement. “We think that Pixvana has an extraordinary team that really understands how to deliver cinematic, immersive experiences in XR and can build a SaaS business at scale.”
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To understand Pixvana’s underlying technology, it’s best to watch content in virtual reality. Pixvana CEO Forest Key knew this, so as he went to pitch the company’s idea to more than 50 investors for the Series A round, he brought headsets with him and showed a version of the video below — essentially a pitch baked into a VR experience from Pixvana’s office.
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Source: GeekWire