Hologram startup 8i gets first cash out of Baidu’s VR/AR fund

Holo by 8i shown in action. GIF by Tech in Asia, from video by 8i.

Holograms startup 8i today announced US$27 million in series B funding to aid in development of its augmented reality mobile app, due out later this year.

Time Warner led the latest funding for the New Zealand-based startup, with the new VC wing of Chinese search engine giant Baidu contributing some of the cash.

Mixed reality

8i’s Holo app, currently in testing, will inject virtual characters into the real world via your phone’s camera.

GIF by Tech in Asia, from video by 8i.

One drawback to the app is that it’ll only work on phones that support Google’s Tango augmented reality platform. 8i already has a very early beta running on the Lenovo Phab 2. “An AR-enabled phone does positional tracking,” said CEO Steve Raymond last week to Variety. “It has a richer feature set.”

The goal is to make interactive 3D holograms on any mobile phone.

Aside from the Holo app, 8i is working on even more detailed VR that draws on reality, produced using highly specialist and expensive multi-directional cameras and green-screen sets. That side of things, aimed at professional content creators, is run out of 8i’s Los Angeles studio and requires a VR headset to view.

A man in a VR headset walks around a virtual recreation of a woman and baby filmed in 8i’s Studio 8 in Los Angeles. Screengrab from video by 8i

Baidu already has AR know-how and products of its own, albeit apps that are mainly a novelty – like the AR tour of lost Beijing landmarks shown off last month. It’s also investing heavily in artificial intelligence (AI) that’ll be relevant in everything from web searches to its self-driving car program.

“AI is at the core of AR technology. At Baidu, we believe AR technology will have applications across a wide range of industries,” said Baidu Ventures’ partner Daisy Cai.

Baidu Ventures was started last September with a US$200 million focus on AR and VR tech. Baidu will “cooperate with [8i] on future product development,” said the US$65 billion search giant in a statement.