Miami-based start-up, GathR Virtual Studios Inc, completed a pre-seed round to fund its innovative take on the widely used two-dimensional home-office meeting “apps” made popular during the COVID-19 shutdown.
Bypassing the cumbersome VR goggles, the easy-to-use platform was built to emphasize realistic, 3D experiences capable of hosting multiple users. Any real space a customer needs can be easily incorporated into a permanent digitally-created setting.
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First applications have attracted enterprise customers with digital job simulations for retail as well as for showrooms and tradeshows where 3D assets and products are displayed in the detail-rich digital settings. Easy to use avatars with unique hologram technology navigate training venues and trade show floors seamlessly.
“When the pandemic shut the world down business as usual was no longer usual. I started thinking how can I provide more value to core customers. Live-events of every kind were being shut down. Staring at flat faces on screens and evaluating people’s choices of home decoration were just not what modern business was supposed to be,” explains co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Jaime Lopez.
“It was clear that business would be different even in a post-pandemic world but the technology had to be more engaging than 2-D and more flexible,” added Kenneth Landau, co-founder & CEO. “Jaime and I shared a vision to create an ecosystem that would bring people together and keep users engaged, and also be useful to businesses which are always looking for a better mousetrap and a way to improve productivity and cut costs.”
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The two partners took their vision to an experienced group of investors and within a few weeks a $2.7 million pre-seed round was fully subscribed, led by Ken Moelis, Charles Fabrikant, Hope Taitz and Alberto Peisach among others and a board of experienced entrepreneurs was established.
Charles Fabrikant, investor and director, explains the attraction of the platform, “During my 30 years as CEO I was always on the lookout for ways to improve our operations. I was impressed by the early iteration of the GathR platform and its potential to facilitate many different functions retaining the intimacy of in person experience and also save costs.”
The raise is earmarked for the hiring of an executive team and the further development of the next gen technology. The next product-release is scheduled for this summer promising to make the whole experience a more seamless one. “A perfect hybrid for business going forward,” Landau elaborated.
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