Varjo Technologies is a Helsinki-based company that has raised $31 million in Series B funding led by Atomico, bringing the total raised to $46 million. Next47, a venture firm backed by Siemens, joined the round as a new investor. EQT Ventures and Lifeline Ventures also participated in this round.
Varjo raised the funding to bring the world’s first human-eye resolution VR / XR (virtual reality and mixed reality) product to market. And Varjo will also use the Series B investment to scale its hardware and software teams from 80 people to more than 200 in the next year.
“We hope that the impact of our hardware and software platform on industry will be as profound as the introduction of the Graphical User Interface,” said Varjo co-founder and CEO Urho Konttori in a statement. “At Varjo we’re extremely proud to welcome Atomico, Europe’s most experienced VC, and industry icon Siemens, to our mission of launching a new era of immersive computing for professionals.”
Plus Varjo’s VR / XR hardware and software product is the first aimed at industrial use, which can transform work in complex industries including architecture, automotive, aerospace, construction, engineering, industrial design, and manufacturing.
Varjo’s headset can be integrated with 3D engines and software tools. And Varjo’s product can be used in fields where extreme precision and visual fidelity are essential. Varjo is already partnered with manufacturing companies like Airbus, Audi, Saab, Sellen, Volkswagen, and Volvo.
“The resolution of VR devices on the market today is a fraction of what the average human eye can see,” added Atomico Founding Partner and CEO Niklas Zennström. “Until we met Varjo’s visionary founders and experienced their superior product firsthand, we thought that VR was still at least 10 years away from being truly useful for professionals. It’s because of Varjo’s world class team that industries such as automotive, engineering, aerospace, architecture, construction, industrial design and real-world training simulations won’t have to wait that long to be able to utilize the technology for their business-critical use cases.”
Varjo’s VR headset is expected to arrive in late Q4 2018. And its AR/XR add-on to the headset will be available in the first half of 2019. Currently, the company’s prototype has an effective resolution of 50 megapixels per eye, which is more than twenty times that of consumer devices.
