Market Reality: Greycroft, Zell Lurie Invest in Gaming, While Vuzix and Ubimax Pursue Businesses

Augmented reality can be used to fascinate and entertain, but it can be applied in the workplace.

While companies on the entertainment end received their votes of confidence via funding, two companies working with enterprises demonstrated their worth by teaming up to pursue customers.

Greycroft Venture Partner Closes $15.6 Million in Funding for AR/VR, Gaming

Jon Goldman, a partner at Greycroft Venture, recently closed $15.6 million in seed stage funding to companies in augmented and virtual reality, video gaming and e-sports

More than 20 companies received investments between $50,000 and $500,000 under the GC VR Gaming Tracker Fund, LP.

One of these companies, Prynt, makes photo printer for iPhones that not only produces Polaroid-like but also embeds augmented reality videos into photos when scanned with the corresponding iOS app.

"AR, VR, video games and e-sports continue to grow tremendously and spawn entirely new user experiences and industries," said Goldman in a news release. "Through our investments, we can help these startups reach the next stage of market adoption. We are committed to helping new teams, not only through capital, but also with connections and strategic advice."

Zell Lurie Founders Fund Invests in Neurable

Fresh off the heels of announcing the limited beta SDK of their brain control interface, Neurable received some good news in the form of funding from the Founders Fund of Zell Lurie Institute at the University of Michigan.

"Neurable represents an amazing example of cross-university collaboration, where business and science came together perfectly to form a very promising venture. It is a great addition to the portfolio, which continues to highlight the depth and breadth of entrepreneurial activity across the university that we work to inspire and enable every day at the Institute," said Stewart Thornhill, executive director of the Zell Lurie Institute and manager of the Founders Fund, in a news release.

While Neurable's technology has future applications across a wide array of technologies, including augmented reality, the company is currently concentrating their efforts on gaming.

Vuzix & Ubimax Partner for Enterprise Augmented Reality Solution

Vuzix Corporation announced that they have teamed up with Ubimax to combine the former's M100 and M300 smart glasses with the latter's Frontline software suite to deliver a unified augmented reality solution for enterprises.

The partnership already boasts John Deere, DHL, Diamler, BMW, WS Kunststoff-Service, and Penny Market among its customers.

Frontline includes four applications, xPick, xMake, xInspect, and xAssist, designed to improve productivity of workers in various operational functions. Ubimax has deployed Frontline to more than 150 customers.

"Vuzix is excited to partner with Ubimax to support the Frontline hands free smart glasses platform and to deliver it into enterprise market verticals across the U.S. and Europe. The Ubimax Frontline platform is accelerating deployments by allowing quicker integration for enterprise customers than most custom solutions to date," said Paul Travers, president and CEO of Vuzix (and NR50 member), in a news release.

DHL recently reported a 15 percent increase in efficiency of the picking process in their logistics operations from a pilot program utilizing the Ubimax xPick software with Vuzix M100 and M300 as well as Google Glass Enterprise Edition. The company plans to expand adoption at its facilities worldwide.

Every Friday, Next Reality reviews the latest headlines from the financial side of augmented and mixed reality. This weekly Market Reality column covers funding announcements, mergers and acquisitions, market analysis, and the like. Check out previous editions of Market Reality for more news you may have missed.

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