Map of Funding Sources for EU XR Technologies
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This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement N° 825545. XR4ALL (Grant Agreement 825545) “eXtended Reality for All” Coordination and Support Action D5.1: Map of funding sources for XR technologies Issued by: LucidWeb Issue date: 30/08/2019 Due date: 31/08/2019 Work Package Leader: Europe Unlimited Start date of project: 01 December 2018 Duration: 30 months Document History Version Date Changes 0.1 05/08/2019 First draft 0.2 26/08/2019 First version submitted for partners review 1.0 30/08/2019 Final version incorporating partners input Dissemination Level PU Public Restricted to other programme participants (including the EC PP Services) Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the EC RE Services) CO Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the EC) This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement N° 825545. Main authors Name Organisation Leen Segers, Diana del Olmo LCWB Quality reviewers Name Organisation Youssef Sabbah, Tanja Baltus EUN Jacques Verly, Alain Gallez I3D LEGAL NOTICE The information and views set out in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Union. Neither the European Union institutions and bodies nor any person acting on their behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained therein. © XR4ALL Consortium, 2019 Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. D5.1 Map of funding sources for XR technologies - 30/08/2019 Page 1 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 3 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................ 3 Dataset ................................................................................................................................... 3 Variables and analysis ............................................................................................................ 4 DIRECTORY ........................................................................................................................ 6 3D Tools ................................................................................................................................. 6 Advertising ........................................................................................................................... 10 Agency .................................................................................................................................. 10 AR SDK .................................................................................................................................. 10 Client Service Studios ........................................................................................................... 11 Content distribution/Media ................................................................................................. 12 Education ............................................................................................................................. 13 Enterprise ............................................................................................................................. 15 Games/entertainment ......................................................................................................... 16 Hardware ............................................................................................................................. 19 Healthcare ............................................................................................................................ 20 Location Based VR ................................................................................................................ 22 Real Estate ........................................................................................................................... 22 Reality Capture .................................................................................................................... 23 Retail/e-commerce .............................................................................................................. 24 Social .................................................................................................................................... 25 Sports/music/live/events ..................................................................................................... 25 Tourism ................................................................................................................................ 26 User Input ............................................................................................................................ 26 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................... 29 APPENDIX........................................................................................................................ 29 Appendix A List of contacts .................................................................................................. 29 D5.1 Map of funding sources for XR technologies - 30/08/2019 Page 2 INTRODUCTION This report is set to provide the most comprehensive directory of investors investing in European XR startups over the period stretching from Q1 of 2015 through Q2 of 2019. The map of available funding sources for XR startups aims to improve the access to capital for European XR startups. This document will also be instrumental to identify key industry players to be invited to the webinars scheduled to take place between M9 and M24 and other XR4ALL events. Interactive technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) (both together can be referred as eXtended Reality – XR hereinafter in the document) will transform the way people communicate, interact, and share information. After years of research and development, XR technology has reached a tipping point where it becomes accessible and allows market introduction. Despite its potential growth, the European XR scene is relatively less known and threatened by a strong non-European competition. The European XR industry is facing several challenges and constraints, such as its fragmentation, the weak technology transfer and the lack of finance. The lack of finance will be the special focus of this document. METHODOLOGY The methodology employed in this report consists exclusively on a qualitative data analysis. Regarding the time frame, we focused on Q1,2015 to Q2,2019. Dataset In order to conduct the mapping, LCWB used data acquired from Dealroom and enriched it with its own database. Dealroom is a platform that helps new investors and tech companies connect with each other and share data. It enables investors to track companies’ progress and decide the appropriate time to invest in them. Entrepreneurs are able to control investment interests and use Dealroom.co as their official channel for outgoing information to potential investors. Data collection by LCWB was initiated in 2016 when the first database in VR/AR startups was set up in collaboration with the San Francisco-based The Venture Reality Fund (VR Fund). LCWB has invested time in maintaining and enlarging the database of startups and transactions by carefully monitoring on a daily basis more than 250 Google alerts LCWB has invested time in maintaining and enlarging the database of startups and transactions by carefully monitoring on a daily basis more than 250 Google alerts since January 2019. The Google alerts were set up to track EU XR companies and relevant trade associations, international organizations, think tanks, and online news publications D5.1 Map of funding sources for XR technologies - 30/08/2019 Page 3 covering the local, European, and international XR industry including funding news. LCWB also consulted relevant online databases. Interviews with investors and entrepreneurs conducted during June and July 2019 were also a great source of information to enlarge the directory. Along with the rigorous online research, LCWB kept enriching the database with the details of the companies exhibiting at the biggest VR/AR conferences, such as Laval Virtual, Digility, AWE Europe, to name but a few. Variables and analysis Tableau, a data visualization software, has been used for analyzing the data and prepare the tables shown below. The analysis of this deliverable consists in mapping the investors funding European XR startups and classifying these investments by vertical including the number of times each investor had invested in a particular startup. We use the term vertical to talk about a category or a sector. All the investors mentioned in the report were crosschecked manually against Crunchbase.com to increase the data reliability. While crosschecking information, additional investors were identified and added to the database. We will proceed now to describe the different variables that we have taken into account in this exercise: • Geographical scope The data acquired from Dealroom included non-European Union member states such as Russia, Turkey, Israel, Norway, Switzerland and others. As many of these countries are eligible for Horizon 2020 grants and their startup ecosystem is closely linked to the European landscape, we have decided to include