VividQ develops holographic display technology for next-generation AR/VR devices. Pulse 2.0 interviewed VividQ co-founder and CEO Darran Milne to gain a deeper understanding of the company.
Darran Milne’s Background
Could you tell me more about your background? Milne said:
“I’m Darran Milne, CEO and founder of VividQ. I started my career in academia, completing a PhD in theoretical physics, focusing on quantum information theory and quantum computation. After a short time as a post-doc researcher, I decided to try my hand at finance and worked as a quant analyst for a financial software company. A few years later, I joined a new startup that had a relationship with the photonics engineering department at the University of Cambridge. While that startup’s idea was nonsense, I made some friends in the department and we started working on some new ideas around display that combined my math/theoretical physics background with their research in 3D display.”
Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Milne shared:
“The researchers were already building very nascent holographic displays that were restricted in terms of interaction, image quality and size due to the hugely complicated processing required to create the hologram. We worked for a few weeks to see if we could develop new, more efficient methods to generate the holograms. We made fast progress and were able to speed it up by thousands of times, and, for the first time, create holographic images that were generated in real-time and interactive.”
“At this point, we realized we had something special and could see a route for holographic display that would essentially replace all the digital displays we use today, giving us full 3D experiences without the need for headsets or glasses and opening up whole new categories of products. This is literally the technology that got us to the “Star Trek holodeck” or the “Star Wars Leia hologram.” We set out to raise some pre-seed money and spun the company out.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Milne reflected:
“Every year, we have an epic two-day hackathon where we allocate four-person teams to invent new things based on a theme. Sadly, I don’t get to join in, but I have immense fun judging the projects. The level of ingenuity is just off the scale and usually the prototypes are either hilarious or genius in equal measure.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Milne explained:
“We develop the building blocks of holographic display: software comprising core algorithms, APIs and render pipelines, and content plugins, and hardware comprising product/display module designs, hardware development kits and full display engine modules.”
“Our software and hardware allow companies to integrate holographic display into their products, enabling true 3D visuals.”
Challenges Faced
Have you faced any challenges in your sector of work recently? Milne acknowledged:
“One of our first target applications for our developer kits and display modules is in AR glasses/VR headsets. However, this has been a turbulent market, with many companies overpromising and underdelivering. This places an extra high burden of proof on new technologies, which can slow progress with customers and investors. With so much money being poured into the technology by giants like Meta and Apple, there is always the question of how a small startup can compete.”
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Milne noted:
“We started out focusing primarily on the algorithms and software for holographic display. However, we are increasingly taking on the hardware challenges as well, so that now our offering covers the entire display architecture and is applicable for multiple near-term products, e.g. VR, AR and automotive HUD.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Milne cited:
“On the tech front:
- Call of Duty holograms: We can now play CoD (or other AAA games) in our holographic display hardware. This is a combination of several huge achievements: getting to game-level image quality, high frame rates on low power compute and being able to convert existing content to 3D holograms.
- 3D Augmented Reality Waveguide: This is a new kind of lens that enables 3D visuals for lightweight AR glasses. While waveguides are becoming the standard for AR glasses, until now they were only capable of showing 2D images. Our novel design enables real 3D, solving multiple issues for AR display.
- Floating holograms: Beyond AR/VR type holograms, we have also created a system that projects the images into mid-air (without requiring any headwear). These prototypes are the basis for future room-scale holographic systems that will be the ultimate entertainment and training simulation environments.
On the business side:
- We broke through the $1 million annual revenue target in 2024
- We have secured multiple big tech customers and are involved in ongoing development projects
- We opened offices in Tokyo and California to expand our commercial activities”
Funding
When asking Milne about the company’s funding details, he revealed:
“To date, we have raised around $29 million from a mix of U.K., Japan and U.S. investors.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Milne assessed:
“In the long run, we aim to take on the entire $330 billion display market. However, our first near-term targets are the AR/VR ($9 billion) and auto HUD ($7 billion) markets.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Milne affirmed:
“The other companies working on holographic display are all trying to invent new display hardware from the silicon up. This is a long, perilous and hugely capital-intensive journey. By contrast, our approach is to use existing, mass-produced components and solve the problems at the math/algorithmic level. We make ordinary components do extraordinary things with clever math rather than brute-force it with new and risky display hardware.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Milne concluded:
“We want holographic display to be the standard technology across all devices – and, of course, for VividQ to supply the hardware and software underlying it all. We want to create a world where we have intuitive, 3D interfaces and are not locked for hours into a small screen in our hands or a desk. The creative, artistic and practical uses are endless. We have the technology to bring about this holographic world; now, we just have to see it through.”
