WakingApp announced recently that they’ve completed a series C funding round to secure $4.3M to realise their vision of an immersive content creation platform that everyone can use.
Israeli company WakingApp is developing a content creation platform for the rest of us. Those of us who always had a hankering to build digital things but were hampered by lack of skill and / or time, and are now looking to the advent of virtual reality as an opportunity to change that.
The company has just secured $4.3M funding from Youzu Interactive as well as “one of largest Internet and search companies in China”. “For some time now, we have been seeking to invest in AR/VR technology, as it is on the verge of influencing every aspect of our lives. It is an industry that is projecting 13,000% growth in three years and revenues of $150 billion in five years,” said Daniel Chen Fan, Investment Director of Youzu Interactive. “What impresses us about WakingApp is its ability to overcome a great user barrier by simplifying the way one creates AR/VR content, and we plan to bring this revolution to the Chinese market.”
The technology in question is called ENTiTi and exists right now in the form of a cross-platform, cloud-based tool set which supposedly hands the user access to a powerful set of intuitive tools which which you create VR and AR content by dragging and dropping assets, and building visual scripts, using ENTiTi Creator. Those applications can then be viewed on any mobile device with the requisite ENTiTi Viewer application installed.
Although the company’s focus thus far as been on allowing quick and easy ‘AR lite’ applications, the kind that exploded on smartphones and tablets a few years ago, WakingApp assures us that it’s focus is very much on the rapidly expanding prospect of consumer virtual reality.
Udi Shani, CEO of WakingApp recognises this, stating “The AR/VR space is developing fast, and with our investment partners, we are moving quickly to make sure every pair of smart glasses sold in the months ahead can have amazing content for users and provide brands with new opportunities to contact with customers.”
Clearly the content creation side of the tooling is mature enough for use right now, and WakingApp have told us they have versions of their ENTiTi viewer working on Samsung’s Gear VR headset with Oculus Rift desktop VR versions planned next year.
WakingApp is hoping to meet the expectations of a new generation of people weaned on applications like Minecraft, which successfully enabled people with no specific skills in content creation, to do so and share the results interactively with their friends. We’ve not yet seen content using WakingApp’s creation tools inside a full-fledged virtual reality system, but the company hopes this investment will allow them to ride the first wave of consumer VR releases and build a community around their tools and ecosystem.
See Also: John Carmack Now Working on Minecraft for Oculus Rift and Gear VR