Big news for eyecandylab — a participant in the 2018 Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs Accelerator, powered by Techstars! The startup just raised a seed round of $1.5 million, less than one year since graduating from the accelerator. The company is behind augmen.tv and brings augmented reality to video.
The seed round was led by Band of Angels, Silicon Valley’s first angel investment group, with additional investments from LG Technology Ventures, an investment arm of the South Korean LG Group, and additional angel investors. The company will use the funds to accelerate the development of its scalable SaaS platform, enter new strategic markets in Asia and to expand the United States team.
“I am excited to have such amazing partners with us, to support our vision of the interactive future of video entertainment. The entire eyecandylab team is looking forward to igniting the next stage of our company” said Robin Sho Moser, CEO of eyecandylab.
In the summer of 2018, Moser and his team spent 13 weeks in Philadelphia participating in the LIFT Labs accelerator. They had sessions on financial models, investor decks and fundraising — and it clearly paid off.
“If you’re building a media-related company, LIFT Labs exposes you to a great network for people. Also, you’ll learn a lot from your fellow entrepreneurs,” said Moser. “The exchange of ideas was incredible.”
It’s the second big investing raise from the 2018 LIFT Labs accelerator class. Orai, a tech-enabled public speaking and communication startup, raised $2.3 million in February.
eyecandylab provides a computer-vision software solution using videos as a trigger for AR content on consumer mobiles and AR glasses. Integrated into existing apps, it enables enterprises from media, entertainment, sports, and commerce to drive user engagement and tap into new revenue streams by providing an interactive AR layer around screens. Customers include VIACOM, NBCUniversal, WWE, and Softbank.
Together with LG Uplus, eyecandylab will launch an important 5G service in South Korea later this year. The company is also bringing industry experts onto their advisory board,
including AR and spatial computing expert Tom Emrich; Deutsche Telekom’s Director of Immersive Technology Terry R. Schussler; and Andy Gstoll, former CMO of Wikitude and founder ofMixedReality I/O.
“eyecandylab is on track to take advantage of the convergence of 5G, XR and next generation
broadcast video” said Schussler. “It is a perfectly targeted use of technology to realize the massive potential business that will come from blending traditional video content with interactive XR experiences.” Tom Emrich added: “I have been consistently impressed by the product growth and traction eyecandylab has demonstrated since I met them in 2017. The team behind this company, led by Robin Sho Moser, is exceptional and I am excited to join the advisory board to help them continue to succeed in making augmented reality a reality in the consumer space. eyecandylab could be one of these critical use cases for mass adoption in consumer AR.”