Omnivor raises $2.7M as pandemic spurs curiosity in holographic media from Nike, T-Cellular, others

Traders are placing extra gasoline behind Omnivor, a Seattle startup gaining traction with its 3D holographic content material media manufacturing platform.

Sway Ventures led a $2.7 million seed spherical, which included participation from Kernel Labs, the Seattle startup studio that spun out Omnivor, together with different angel buyers. Whole funding within the 4-year-old firm is $5.5 million.

Omnivor is using the pandemic-driven development of extra firms accelerating their digital know-how adoption. Late final yr the 8-person startup launched Holograms for Retail, a brand new product being utilized by Nike that lets on-line clients use holograms to see how varied merchandise match and look.

It additionally rolled out Reside Holographic Telepresence, a separate product aimed toward firms internet hosting digital conferences, working in tandem with T-Cellular and its 5G community capabilities. Omnivor lately graduated from the 5G Open Innovation Lab, a T-Cellular backed program for startups.

“Physicality is being questioned at each interplay, from working and purchasing, to studying and speaking,” Najib Khouri-Haddad, common companion at Sway Ventures, stated in an announcement. “Omnivor has the potential to change into a robust platform on this new actuality.”

Omnivor CEO Adam Kirk stated early utilization numbers from retailers are promising.

“Buyers are capable of see the product on their phrases, which creates much more belief within the product,” he famous.

Comparable know-how utilizing digital avatars is gaining steam within the video video games and leisure industries. Video games akin to Animal Crossing and Rec Room have been massively standard in the course of the pandemic as persons are restricted of their means to socialize bodily. Los Angeles startup Wave raised $30 million final yr to host digital concert events.

Final yr Omnivor helped Israel President Reuven Rivlin communicate to constituents to rejoice Israeli Independence Day.

Researchers have been engaged on volumetric video for a number of years, however the know-how is turning into extra accessible for startups akin to Omnivor, 8i, 4dviews, DepthKit, and others. Jaunt was one of many bigger gamers, having raised greater than $100 million, however offered its property to Disney in 2019.

Kirk joined Kernel in 2015 as its vp of engineering after almost 5 years at Microsoft and has saved that function whereas main Omnivor. He earned his Ph.D in laptop science from the College of California-Berkeley in 2010.

Different firms out of Kernel embrace Blue Canoe Studying, Occo, Trusted Key, which offered to Workday in 2019, and AnswerIQ, which offered to Freshworks final yr.

Right here’s an instance of a volumetric video interview with Kirk that GeekWire did in 2019: