AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, November 16, 2010 /PRNewswire/ --
- Intel Capital Invests in the Expansion of New Mass Medium, Augmented Reality
Layar, the largest platform in mobile augmented reality, announced today that it has secured EUR 10M / USD $14M in a funding round led by Intel Capital joined by existing investors Sunstone Capital and Prime Ventures. The new funding will be used towards further development of the product and platform to drive meaningful content and usage of augmented reality (AR). Specifically, the team will be focusing on working with developers and brands to make it easier to discover Layar content as well as further investing in the capabilities of the platform.
"At Layar, we're constantly looking for more ways to bring impactful augmented reality experiences into people's everyday lives and this investment from Intel Capital is another step towards expanding that goal," said Raimo van der Klein, co-founder of Layar. "Augmented reality provides the richest experience on the mobile phone - an experience as unlimited as our own imaginations. This funding will help make these vast opportunities with AR a reality by providing our large ecosystem of content creators with the tools to build compelling and useful content."
"Augmented reality is a disruptive technology that blends reality with digital information, which enriches applications like the ones developed on the Layar platform," said Marcos Battisti, Intel Capital's Managing Director for Western Europe and Israel. "Intel Capital is committed to bringing the technology of the future into people's everyday lives by investing in companies that have the formula to inspire, learn and create. We are truly excited about the future evolutions in this field."
"Layar's browser and developer platform for augmented reality and location based applications provide a unique user experience," said Klaus Konrad, Investment Director at Intel Capital. "Layar is changing how people interact with their environment. It offers an open platform for developers and users and we expect the creation of new and disruptive usage models."
Layar Products:
- Reality Browser - Mobile app for iPhone, Android and Bada devices.
- Player - Free mobile software to embed Augmented Reality into any
mobile app.
- Platform - Environment for the creation, testing and publication of
Augmented Reality content.
With this investment, users and content creators will have more opportunities to explore and build augmented reality experiences for everyday use.
About Layar
Layar is the world's largest mobile augmented reality platform with thousands of developers and up to 1,500 layers. Layar brings impactful augmented reality experiences into people's everyday lives through its platform that currently has more than 1M active users. The Layar platform is available on Android, iPhone and Bada devices, comes globally pre-installed on millions of phones and is promoted by leading handset manufacturers and carriers like Samsung, Verizon and Sprint.
Layar was named as a 2011 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum, a Disruptive Innovator at the 2010 Deloitte Fast50 awards, and received a Meffy Mobile Entertainment Award 2010 for Technology Innovation. The company also won the Grand Prix 2010 at Netexplorateur.
Layar is located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The company started in June 2009. Layar is VC funded by Sandstone Capital, Prime Ventures and Intel Capital and has 40 employees. To learn more about Layar, visit http://www.layar.com.
About Intel Capital
Intel Capital, Intel's global investment organization, makes equity investments in innovative technology start-ups and companies worldwide. Intel Capital invests in a broad range of companies offering hardware, software, and services targeting enterprise, home, mobility, health, consumer Internet, semiconductor manufacturing and cleantech. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested more than US$9.7 billion in over 1,100 companies in 48 countries. In that timeframe, 189 portfolio companies have gone public on various exchanges around the world and 258 were acquired or participated in a merger. In 2009, Intel Capital invested US$327 million in 107 investments with approximately 50 percent of funds invested outside the U.S. and Canada. For more information on Intel Capital and its differentiated advantages, visit http://www.intelcapital.com
SOURCE Layar
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