Digital Catapult’s Augmentor programme concludes with investor and executive showcase

London, 21 January 2020 – The third year of Digital Catapult’s Augmentor programme has concluded with an investor and executive showcase event promoting the pioneering products and services developed by the 10 Augmentor cohort teams to some of the UK’s leading investors and large corporate organisations seeking to collaborate with innovative tech startups.

Aimed at the next generation of companies developing innovative, commercially focused applications for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), the 12 week programme provides expert mentorship, masterclasses and access to state of the art immersive facilities to stimulate the investment opportunities for immersive technologies in the UK, and provide the startup cohort with the means to meet potential clients and partners.

So far, 17 companies have taken part in the Augmentor programme over the previous two years and, the majority of which not having raised investment, have raised a combined total of more than £3 million. A recent report from PwC reveals that £1.39 trillion will be added to the global economy through VR and AR, adding £62.5 billion to the UK economy by 2030 and directly impacting over 400,000 jobs by this time.

Jeremy Silver, CEO, Digital Catapult said: “It remains challenging to build and grow immersive technology companies in the current domestic market and internationally. For this reason we want to support high quality businesses with potential to develop a new product or service in the immersive sector. The UK continues to demonstrate real talent in this space and the ten companies on this year’s Augmentor programme have displayed a real diversity of ideas, which they have pursued with energy and rigour. Some have grown much closer to market and to investment, some have defined their product with much greater clarity, all of them have grown from participating in the programme. We wish them all success, the showcase will provide a fascinating snapshot of current UK capability in this dynamic sector.”

Augmentor brings together investors such as HTC Vive, Edge Investments, Remagine Ventures, MMC Ventures and ADV amongst others, commercial partners including Dimension, Seed Legals and Vive X, as well as previous Augmentor cohort members HoloMe and Reality Zero One, to help accelerate UK investment in immersive technologies and boosting their development and adoption in multiple industries.

Iulia Tudor, Investor Engagement Manager, Digital Catapult commented: “The Augmentor teams clearly demonstrate the potential of immersive technologies to provide investment-ready, commercially-viable products and services spun out of creativity and technical know-how. We’re so pleased to have had such successful engagement from the UK investor community this year at the showcase event and as partners and mentors. We’re really excited to see these projects gain further investment and continue to grow.”

From training for doctors and sportspeople, to ‘Augmented Intelligence’, and quick and easy ways to configure 3D content, the latest Augmentor cohort runs the gamut of exciting and innovative possibilities for immersive technologies, pushing at the boundaries of what is possible. The ten teams are:

• Agile Datum – A data science company focused on improving the planning and housebuilding market.
• Also Known As – An immersive storytelling, research and design studio creating immersive training tools for people who work in high-risk jobs.
• Artificial Artists – A team of interactive and VFX specialists. It has developed a 3D animation platform that empowers artists to create quality 3D content for digital and immersive media.
• Extend Robotics – A robotic technology company. It is developing a drone flying platform with two robotic arms, which is guided by virtual reality technology over 5G to perform manipulation tasks remotely.
• Darf Design – An award winning interactive design studio located in London. In 2018 it launched a mobile platform which allows users to share 3D content in the real world using AR.
• Imaged Reality – A VR and AR startup which believes immersive technologies will transform training, knowledge and skill development across the Oil & Gas, mining, construction, engineering industries and universities.
• IN Reality – A software technology company, specialising in VR training systems for blue chip companies. It has a background in aerospace and now seek to enter the emerging sports VR market.
• Neuro Create – A startup specialising in immersive interactive digital platforms including developing personalised immersive collaborators that spark creativity, enhance cognitive agility and lead to ‘Augmented Intelligence’ for users.
• M-XR – A startup developing 3D capture technology which uses a custom engineered system and machine learning to measure and extract previously unattainable 3D information.
• Resus VR – A medical training startup, which improves the decision making of healthcare professionals through exposure to VR simulations. It’s goal is to create the first ‘flight simulator for healthcare’

Find out more about Augmentor here

Read about the companies in full in the showcase brochure here