Veterans of an augmented reality unicorn that makes its own headset are betting on a streamlined, device-agnostic approach easier for businesses to adopt.
Trace has landed paying clients such as T-Mobile and Qualcomm to test its templates that aim for plug-and-play ease, similar to what Squarespace did for websites and Canva for graphic design.
The technology creates 3D immersive displays in a room – a sample video shows a golden dragon flying loops through the atrium of Columbus Museum of Art. The images can be seen using a smart phone or virtual reality goggles such as the recently released Apple Vision Pro.
While in stealth mode the past three years, Trace created visual experiences at last year's Hip Hop 50 Summit in New York City and Deutsche Telekom's appearance at Mobile World Congress, according to a news release.
"The results couldn’t have impressed us more,” Elmar Schrage, head of business XR development at Deutsche Telekom, said in the release. “The end-to-end, user-friendly approach offered by Trace is unique and lets us deploy high-fidelity immersive experiences. Trace is an ideal tool empowering our sales team to effectively present complex products or simply to ‘wow’ our customer in our flagship stores."
Co-founder and CEO Greg Tran previously was creative director and principal designer at Magic Leap Inc., stepping down in January 2020 after nearly five years, according to his LinkedIn profile. A Columbus native and Ohio State University graduate, he's moved back home and plans to keep the company here, according to a spokesman.
Co-founders CTO Martin Smith, and Sean Couture, also are veterans of Magic Leap, a South Florida AR company. Overall the company has five employees and is working with recent graduates of Columbus College of Art & Design.
Trace 3D Inc. has raised $2 million, led by Rev1 Ventures and Impellent Ventures.
"Rev1 continues to support and invest in industry disruptors, and Trace is doing precisely that," Rev1's Melinda Gloriosa said in the release. “We’ve invested early because we believe they’re poised to make waves in the augmented reality and spatial computing industry."
Columbus-based Ohio Innovation Fund is among other participants in the round that closed late last month, along with Everywhere Ventures, Portland Seed Fund, Allied Venture Partners, Service Provider Capital, Astir Ventures, Move VC, and Phoenix Venture Fund. Also joining were private individuals and scout funds of Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and Index Ventures.
Magic Leap was valued at $2 billion in 2021, but struggled to meet job creation goals, reports the South Florida Business Journal. Last fall the company went through its second CEO replacement since the founder departed in 2020, and is pivoting toward business uses instead of the consumer market.
Smith left Magic Leap in February 2021 as lead software development engineer, after nearly six years. Couture was a senior computer animation artist in 5 1/2 years with the unicorn, according to their LinkedIn profiles.
"Right now the AR ecosystem is very fractured and there are challenges with every step of the process – from creation, to hosting, to deployment on all of the different devices," a spokesman said via email. "Trace makes this process streamlined and approachable for non-experts."
