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Veldhoven-based glasses-free 3D specialist Dimenco has announced a €2.5 million Series A funding round led by KPN Ventures and the Brabant Development Agency (BOM). The investment is earmarked for further scaling up the company’s activities to fulfill the growing customer demand and further expanding the simulated reality (SR) ecosystem to become the spatial visualization technology standard in the market. At the end of last month, this ecosystem got a big boost when laptop giant Acer unveiled a new product built on SR.
Dimenco’s SR technology is a new form of spatial computing that combines lenticular light-field computer vision, integrated sensors and image processing algorithms, to seamlessly experience realistic 3D objects in a virtual environment. It does so with a resolution of 8K in 60 frames per second, without the need for any wearables. Acer’s ConceptD notebook, due to release later this year, marks a major milestone for both Dimenco and its technology. Carrying the “Built on SR” label, implemented in the form of the laptop giant’s Spatiallabs solution, it’s the first glasses-free product for AR and VR – collectively called XR.
“We foresee an important role for 5G, and an ever-increasing demand for bandwidth, in the simulated-reality market – XR without wearables,” comments managing director Hans Söhngen of KPN Ventures, the venture capital investment arm of Dutch telecom and ICT provider KPN. “With the first consumer products of Dimenco licensees in the market end of this year, starting with the Acer Spatiallabs laptop and many to follow in 2022, we’re very optimistic about the opportunities that our partnership will bring. We see a great benefit for KPN customers when using SR laptops in their daily work environments in the creative, manufacturing, gaming and health industries.”
Dimenco’s initial proposition is focused on content creators, designers and engineers. The company is working closely with its partners to bring the first SR gaming products to market in 2022. “With the first consumer products scheduled to be released, it’s now essential to speed up our developments and the supply chain,” says CEO Maarten Tobias. BOM CEO Miriam Dragstra adds: “This generates jobs and new knowledge. With the investment, we also encourage new financiers to follow our example.”
