Blippar, a London-based Augmented Reality (AR) company, is on a path to recovery a couple of years after entering into administration. Recently, the technology company has secured a $5 million (approx €3.6 million) funding in a pre-Series A round.
Who backed Blippar?
The round was co-led by Chroma Ventures, the investment arm of Paddy Burns’ and Chris van der Kuyl’s gaming company 4J Studios, and West Coast Capital; the private equity arm of Scottish entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter and family. Canadian entrepreneur Anthony Lacavera also contributed to the round through his Globalive Capital investment firm.
The funding will be used to further develop the company’s technology, and accelerate its growth in key markets, including the US, Europe, and Asia.
As a part of the round, Chris van der Kuyl and tech entrepreneur Justin Cooke has appointed to the Blippar Board this month
Specialised in AR content
Founded by Ambarish Mitra along with Jessica Butcher, Omar Tayeb, and Steve Spencer, Blippar has specialises in augmented reality (AR) content creation and publishing to any smartphone and the web.
Its AR creation and publishing platform, Blippbuilder, enables everyone from teachers to creative technologists globally to create and publish their own AR experiences easily and efficiently.
Since launching in the UK in 2011, Blippar’s technology has been used by world-leading brands including PepsiCo, Pearson, Burberry, Cadbury, L’Oréal, GSK, Rugby World Cup, and Procter & Gamble
The UK Government secured a minority equity stake in Blippar in 2020 through the Future Fund match funding scheme, further validating Blippar’s status as a leading innovative UK technology company.
Went into administration
Back in 2019, Blippar went into administration after it failed to pull together an emergency funding deal. However, the company’s main investor Candy Ventures acquired the company’s intellectual property to keep the brand alive.
Notably, the UK company had more than 300 employees and claimed $1.5 billion valuations at one point in time.
Chroma Ventures principal, Chris van der Kuyl, commented: “Blippar’s AR technology is by far the most advanced and innovative that I’ve seen in years and there is huge potential for AR to power the ultimate gaming experience of the future.”
Sir Tom Hunter commented: “Blippar has demonstrated strong progress with the turnaround plan put in place by Faisal and the team, and the business is now well placed to maximise the opportunities presented by the growing AR ecosystem hence we are delighted to invest.”
Anthony Lacavera commented: “Blippar is exactly the kind of business we get excited about. With the AR tech stack now available on over 4 billion mobile phones and with 5G rolling out globally, the timing for AR is now. Blippar is incredibly well-positioned to lead the transition from a 2D to an immersive 3D world leveraging its experience in Computer Vision, Machine Learning, AI in addition to Augmented Reality.”
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