The Digital Catapult’s Augmentor
programme comprises of a 12
week accelerator programme
and concludes with a presentation to
investors and industry experts.
At the end of January a showcase
was held at the Catapult’s central
London offices. Comprising of 10
start-ups, who have been using virtual
or augmented reality to develop
commercially viable products or
solutions, they presented their ideas
to the investment community.
“The programme supports early
stage businesses that are developing
innovative and commercially-focused
applications of augmented and virtual
reality,” explained Jeremy Silver,
CEO, Digital Catapult. “By partnering
with leading investment funds, it
gives investors a much greater
understanding of advanced augmented
Creating an immersive ecosystem
The Digital Catapult’s Augmentor programme plays a critical part in developing a
connected ecosystem for immersive technologies. By Neil Tyler
For companies and investors
active in the immersive space it has
been described as a ‘rollercoaster
experience’, but as we head into 2020
that could be about to change.
At the end of 2019 the sector
started to see more use cases
appearing and, critically, more tangible
evidence of the benefits of using VR
and AR. For many investors, these
innovative technologies have lacked
the necessary data to underpin
specific use cases. Today, however,
the conversation is much more ROI
focused and less anecdotal.
Another key influencer is the growth
of a more extensive ecosystem and
the scaling up of capabilities making
it easier to get the technology onto
different platforms.
The ecosystem is developing rapidly
and many of the key constituent parts
are now ready, whether that’s the rollout
of 5G or the development of new
hardware. Larger corporates are also
now investing in AR which for many
has become an R&D priority.
Another area that is supporting
the ecosystem is the development
of tools – Unity, for example, has
developed the Mixed and Augmented
Reality Studio (MARS) which has
been specifically designed to help
the company’s creators make better
spatial experiences and games that
can run anywhere.
The immersive community
Among the cohort of Augmentor
teams presenting were Agile Datum,
a data science company focused on
improving the planning and house
building market; Artificial Artists, a
team of interactive and VFX specialists
that has developed a 3D animation
platform that empowers artists to
create quality 3D content for digital
and immersive media; Extend Robotics
and virtual reality technology,”
The Catapult also connects
established companies with startups
and researchers and provides
physical and digital facilities for
experimentation and testing,
but crucially it works to help derisk
innovation and promote new
commercial applications of digital
technology.
“The Catapult looks to discover
businesses with the most
commercially viable solutions and
then gives them the skills to approach
investors,” explained Silver. “Our
work is all about bringing together
the entrepreneurship of start-up
businesses, with large corporations
and academic research.”
According to Silver it’s also about
stimulating the right market conditions
so that the best companies are able
to get to market faster and, in the
process, help the wider UK economy.
26 25 February 2020 www.newelectronics.co.uk
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