pixels and pictures

As work teams get more remote and global, the onus of creating a connected and cohesive work environment rests on tools like Slack and video conferencing software.

And the demand has led one such Boston-based startup Owl Labs to raise $15 million in a Series B round to speed up manufacturing of its video conferencing camera to meet increased demand, to grow its headcount and expand globally. This round brings the startup’s total funding to date to $22.3 million.

The round was led by Spark Capital and participation from existing investors including Matrix Partners and Playground Global. The company’s product Meeting Owl is a smart device that is a platform-agnostic solution. Customers use Meeting Owl in conjunction with platforms like Zoom, Google Hangouts, and Microsoft Teams. The company projects that over 10 million meetings will be held on the Meeting Owl in 2020.

Spectral Edge, (http://www.spectraledge.co.uk/) today announced the successful completion of an oversubscribed £1.5 million second funding round. New lead investors IQ Capital and Parkwalk Advisors, along with angel investors from Cambridge Angels, Wren Capital, Cambridge Capital Group and Martlet, the Marshall of Cambridge Corporate Angel investment fund, join the Rainbow Seed Fund/Midven and Iceni in backing the company.

Spun out of the University of East Anglia (UEA) Colour Lab, Spectral Edge has developed innovative image fusion technology. This combines different types of image, ranging from the visible to invisible (such as infrared and thermal), to enhance detail, aid visual accessibility, and create ever more beautiful pictures. 

Spectral Edge’s Phusion technology platform has already been proven in the visual accessibility market, where independent studies have shown that it can transform the TV viewing experience for the estimated 4% of the world’s population that suffers from colour-blindness. It enhances live TV and video, allowing colour-blind viewers to differentiate between colour combinations such as red-green and pink-grey so that otherwise inaccessible content such as sport can be enjoyed. 

The new funding will be used to expand Spectral Edge’s team, increase investment in sales and marketing, and underpin development of its product portfolio into IP-licensable products and reference designs. Spectral Edge is mainly targeting computational photography, where blending near-infrared and visible images gives higher quality, more beautiful results with greater depth. Other applications include security, where the combination of visible and thermal imaging enhances details to provide easier identification of people filmed on surveillance cameras, as well as visual accessibility through its Eyeteq brand.

"Spectral Edge is a true pioneer in the field of photography. They are set to disrupt and transform the imaging sector, not just within consumer and professional photography, but also across a broad range of business sectors,” said Max Bautin, Managing Partner at IQ Capital. "Backed by a robust catalogue of IP, Spectral Edge’s technology enables individuals and companies to take pictures and record videos with unparalleled detail by taking advantage of non-visible information like near-infra red and heat. We are proud to add Spectral Edge to our portfolio of companies. We back cutting-edge IP-rich technology which pushes the boundaries but also has a proven track record of experiencing stable growth, and Spectral Edge fits that mould perfectly."

“We are delighted to support Professor Graham Finlayson and his team at Spectral Edge,” said Alastair Kilgour CIO Parkwalk Advisors. “We believe Phusion could prove to be a substantial enhancement to the quality of digital imaging and as such have significant commercial prospects.” 

Spectral Edge is led by an experienced team that combines deep technical and business experience. It includes Professor Graham Finlayson, Head of Vision Group and Professor of Computing Science, UEA, Christopher Cytera (managing director) and serial entrepreneur Dr Robert Swann (chairman).

Ever-shifting camera tech company Lytro has raised major cash to continue development and deployment of its cinema-level camera systems. Perhaps the company’s core technology, “light field photography” that captures rich depth data, will be put to better use there than it was in the ill-fated consumer offerings.

“We believe we have the opportunity to be the company that defines the production pipeline, technologies and quality standards for an entire next generation of content,” wrote CEO Jason Rosenthal in a blog post.

Just what constitutes that next generation is rather up in the air right now, but Lytro feels sure that 360-degree 3D video will be a major part of it. That’s the reason it created its Immerge capture system — and then totally re-engineered it from a spherical lens setup to a planar one. 

.../...

The $60M round was led by Blue Pool Capital, with participation from EDBI, Foxconn, Huayi Brothers and Barry Sternlicht. “We believe that Asia in general and China in particular represent hugely important markets for VR and cinematic content over the next five years,” Rosenthal said in a statement.

It’s a hell of a lot of money, more even than the $50M round the company raised to develop its original consumer camera — which flopped. Its Illum follow-up camera, aimed at more serious photographers, also flopped. Both were innovative technologically but expensive and their use cases questionable.