Another EUR 46 million in funding for EU-backed extended reality technology leader Varjo
What a virtual reality (VR) headset can do, the eye can do better. At least that was the case for such devices until Finnish start-up Varjo came on the scene. While sufficient for entertainment purposes, the resolution in VR devices was nowhere near good enough for professional applications in the engineering, research and design fields. With partial backing from the EU-funded EXTEND project, Varjo developed its innovative products and became the world’s first and only company to achieve human-eye resolution in its VR and mixed reality devices. Varjo has raised another EUR 46 million in funding from existing and new investors to speed up the development of its pioneering hardware and software products. The funds will also be used to accelerate the expansion of its global operations and reseller network into other countries that already number more than 40 in Europe, Asia, North America and the Middle East. With this latest round of funding, the Finnish company has raised a total of EUR 85 million. “We see tremendous demand for virtual and mixed reality use cases, particularly as much of the world continues to work remotely,” explained Varjo CEO Timo Toikkanen in an article posted on the European Innovation Council Community platform. “With support from our growing group of investors, we look forward to scaling our operations and delivering the cutting-edge technology our customers need to transform the way they work.”
Virtual and mixed reality applications in industry
Varjo’s extended reality, or XR, devices are being used by global companies to improve and speed up pilot training, showcase future construction projects, and assess prototypes, designs and active safety technologies. They are also helping to accelerate design processes, train nuclear control room operators more cost-effectively and reduce mistakes made in open surgery. “We were early seed investors in Varjo and we believed in their vision for how immersive computing could transform the way professionals work from the very beginning,” Petteri Koponen, founding partner at investor Lifeline Ventures and chairman of the board at Varjo, noted in the same article. “In less than four years, Varjo has delivered both industry-leading hardware and software to the market. We are thrilled to be participating in this latest funding round as the company continues to scale and deliver an ecosystem capable of bringing enterprise XR adoption mainstream.” For more information, please see: Varjo website
Keywords
EXTEND, Varjo, funding, virtual reality, mixed reality