In Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality News
August 12, 2020 – Varjo, a provider of industrial-grade virtual and extended reality (VR/XR) hardware and software, has today announced that it has closed a USD $54 million round of Series C funding. Tesi, NordicNinja, and Swisscanto Invest by Zürcher Kantonalbank are among the new investors contributing to the round, in addition to follow-on investment participation from existing investors including Lifeline Ventures, Atomico, EQT Ventures and Volvo Cars Tech Fund.
The company has also announced the appointment of Timo Toikkanen (previously president and COO of Varjo) as the new CEO. Co-founder and previous CEO, Niko Eiden, will continue to drive Varjo’s technological innovations as CXO and a board member.
“We are seeing tremendous demand for virtual and mixed reality use cases, particularly as much of the world continues to work remotely,” said Timo Toikkanen, CEO of Varjo. “When you combine the photorealistic resolution and accurate, integrated eye tracking found in our devices with the broad software compatibility we offer, the possibilities for creating, training and running research in immersive environments are endless. 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.”
With this latest infusion of capital, Varjo has now raised just over USD $100 million to date, which the company states will allow it to accelerate its global expansion and development of hardware and software products. Varjo delivers human-eye resolution virtual and mixed reality devices to meet demanding enterprise applications across training and simulation, design and engineering and research. According to the company, global enterprises including Volvo Cars, Boeing, Audi and Siemens use the company’s XR-1 Developer Edition, VR-2 and VR-2 Pro devices to conduct immersive training, design, product development, and more.
“Varjo has established itself as a proven industry leader, as evidenced by its ability to continually push the boundaries of virtual and mixed reality and support the most demanding enterprise applications across industries,” said Keith Bonnici, Investment Director at Tesi. “With their history of breathtaking product innovation, a strong and experienced team and increasing market demand, we are excited to be on board on their journey of revolutionizing computing for all.”
Petteri Koponen, Founding Partner at Lifeline Ventures and Varjo’s Chairman of the Board, commented: “We were early seed investors in Varjo and believed in their vision for how immersive computing could transform the way professionals work from the very beginning. In less than four years, Varjo has delivered both industry-leading hardware and software to the market”. Koponen added, “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.”
Today’s funding announcement comes on the heels of a year marked several company milestones, including:
- Expansion of the company’s global operations and reseller network to over 40 countries in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific with the launch of sales and direct shipping to key markets including Singapore, Israel, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand;
- Quarter-over-quarter customer growth with new customer acquisition of enterprise companies including Boeing Starliner, Siemens, KIA, and Lockheed Martin;
- A commercial partnership with MeetinVR to deliver photorealistic virtual collaboration, allowing users to collaborate remotely with colleagues, customers and partners around the world in an immersive and realistic environment; and
- The launch of real-time chroma key and marker tracking functionality so XR-1 Developer Edition users can seamlessly blend real and virtual content.
For more information on Varjo, please visit the company’s website.
Image credit: Varjo
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About the author
Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.