The AR Roundup: September 2018

Tom Emrich
Super Ventures Blog
3 min readSep 11, 2018

Here’s what you missed in augmented reality for September 2018

Numbers

  • 46% of business executives said they think VR and AR technologies will become a major part of their organization in three years, while 38% said it may take up to five years to become mainstream according to a new survey from Capgemini (IT Pro UK)
  • Unity’s CEO John Riccitiello stated at an event in San Francisco that around two-thirds of all VR and AR applications were built inside the Unity Engine (VentureBeat)
  • The GFR Fund published some findings from its Global AR Pitch competition which saw 56% of submissions from North America folloed by 26% Europe with the majority of startups raising Pre-Seed rounds (GFR)
  • Crunchbase posted some recent information on AR investments they are tracking which included 90 deals amounting in $900M in capital for H1 2018 (Crunchbase)
  • Digi-Capital provided a sneak peek of data it will present at AWE EU 2018 suggesting that the European XR market could pass North America this year to hit 52% of Western XR revenue, growing to 57% by 2022 (even though the US remains the second largest global market, after China)(AWE)

Money

Big News

  • Meta Chinese funding fell through due to Trade Wars (Bloomberg)
  • Facebook, T-Hub conclude India Innovation Hub Accelerator Program (The News Minute)

Hardware

  • Apple acquires Denver-based Akonia Holographics (TechCrunch)

Platforms & Tools

  • Jaunt acquires Teleporter, Personify’s real-time 3D AR asset streamer (VentureBeat)

Applications & Solutions

  • Meet SelfieCircus and 8 more in Snapchat’s new startup accelerator (TechCrunch)

News

Hardware

  • Snap launches new styles of Spectacles that look more like traditional sunglasses (The Verge)
  • Synaptics chip paves the way for dual 2K VR headsets with 1,000 PPI (VentureBeat)

Platform & Tools

  • Jaunt debuts its 360-volumetric capture system (VentureBeat)
  • Sketchfab launches download API in Facebook AR Studio (Sketchfab)
  • Facebook to launch multi-player augmented reality games (Engdaget)
  • 8th Wall launches mobile web AR platform (Next Reality)

Applications & Solutions

  • Two Bit Circus Micro-Amusement Park Opens in Downtown Los Angeles (BusinessWire)
  • Epson lets you pilot drones with its Moverio augmented reality glasses (VentureBeat)
  • AR app maker Osmo debuts Osmo Super Studio featuring Disney’s Mickey Mouse & Friends (VentureBeat)
  • Samsung and BBH tap AR and ‘Family Guy‘ to demonstrate the wonders of smart appliances (VentureBeat)
  • ‘The New York Times’ Introduces First Volumetric AR Experience At Fashion Week (MediaPost)
  • Facebook and Universal integrate AR into Jurassic World (VentureBeat)
  • The Imaginarium partners with Magic Leap (Hollywood Reporter)
  • Pizza Hut Features Augmented Reality In NFL Kickoff Campaign (MediaPost)
  • Warner Bros. Conjures ‘The Nun’ Snapchat AR Lens to Scare Up Ticket Sales (Next Reality)
  • KLM Packs AR Suitcase into iPhone App to Help Passengers Check Luggage (Next Reality)

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Tom Emrich
Super Ventures Blog

AR Pioneer 🚀 On a mission to make #AugmentedReality for everyone. New blog posts including recent AR Roundups are on LinkedIn, head on over!