Investing in Emerge: Introducing Touch to XR
M13’s lead investment will help grow the platform for multi-sensory extended reality experiences.
M13
When we first experienced Emerge’s demo, we were blown away that the technology worked. It was this experience and market potential the potential use cases seemed endless coupled with the ambitions of the management team that drove us to really spend time exploring a partnership. Today we are pleased to announce our lead investment in Emerge, a platform that enables users from distant locations to physically touch, feel and share immersive content in extended reality (XR) using their bare hands. The goal is to create a new language of touch for multi-sensory XR experiences.
This round of funding will allow the company to put its platform in the hands of creators, with a focus on three experience verticals:
1
Tabletop & Social XR Games: Social games are becoming a platform for communication. The possibility of not only having a conversation across a screen but playing tabletop games and interacting with live virtual characters that react to users’ touch will transform these experiences.
2
Learning & Creative Play: Comprehension, retention, and memory are increased through multisensory interactions so we are excited by the possibilities of playing and building things with friends in other countries, sculpting digital shapes and multi-sensory learning experiences.
3
Multi-sensory Meditation & Well-being: Visual-tactile interaction can calm and soothe, and use cases include touch-assisted relaxation experiences and virtual pets you can interact with and feel.
For AR to reach its full potential, it must extend into sensory experiences; there are already 1.2 billion mobile AR installs yet not many breakthrough applications. We believe we are on the precipice of a larger adoption curve as the quality of the experiences continues to improve driven in turn by improvements in displays, content, and network capability (i.e. 5G).
Every major technology shift has the opportunity to change perspectives and shape the future and at M13, we are focused on investing in technologies that will drive change in consumer behavior over the next decade. We are excited to back Sly, Isaac, Mauricio, and the team in their bold ambitions to build the next immersive computing platform.
Emerge is growing its team and welcomes anyone who’d love to help build upon its vision. Browse Emerge’s current open career opportunities. to view Emerge’s current open career opportunities.
