Kevin Hart says he wants his company’s technology to be seen as a medicine, rather than a vitamin – something that’s vital, as opposed to just being something nice to have. And through a recent pivot, it’s finding that traction.
After moving its focus to the real estate industry a little more than a year ago, Frisco-based augmented reality startup Aireal has been growing by helping cut commercial and residential construction costs. And it sees new opportunities on the horizon with the rise in popularity of the metaverse.
“For all of time, you would design a property, build it and then people get to experience it for the first time. With our technology, you can design it, experience it, and then build it,” said Hart, Aireal founder and CEO. “Augmented reality is producing as a solution that’s not this novelty, that's just a game from the real world. It's actually a unique utility that solves significant problems.”
Hart describes Aireal’s software as a visual articulation tool. Using AR and a patented geospatial technology, the company’s platform helps bring blueprints to life. Since it’s tied to a specific location, users can turn 2D and 3D plans and renderings into an AR model that users can walk through, while changing things like floor plan, color and material.
“People can walk around and interact with it, as though it truly coexisted with reality,” Hart said.
Aireal focuses on both commercial and residential real estate but sees the majority of its clients come from the custom and production residential space, where he said around 18% of capital expenditure is lost on change orders. He added that with the pandemic accelerating virtual tours for homebuyers and the need to redesign space in offices, Aireal is also seeing interest from masterplan community developers.
“We are helping them builders become, essentially, the superheroes for their head clients. We're giving them data and information that streamlines their process and reduces the friction of the homebuying and building process as well,” Hart said.
The company was initially formed in 2013, after Hart became frustrated with billboard advertising along the highway and wanted to find a new interactive solution for people to interact with brands and experiences in the digital world. However, at the time, AR technology and the concept of the metaverse were still nascent. For a while, Aireal found traction in the sports and entertainment industry, working for names like the Discovery Channel, Nike and the Dallas Mavericks to create AR experiences for fans.
“We knew that we had a ton of use cases for the way the technology could apply to infinite verticals. What happens there is it's kind of like that age-old saying, ‘When you try focusing on everything, you can't really focus on any one thing,” Hart said. “We were a vitamin. We were nice to have. We accentuated the existing experience through some form of fan engagement, but we never really solved a significant problem.”
Aireal has since grown to a 15-person team, after making its pivot to real estate and joining the Stadia Ventures accelerator program in late 2018. That stint led to Missouri-based sport- and esports-focused VC firm becoming one of Aireal’s backers, alongside early-stage California investor Hustle Fund. So far the company has raised a little more than $2 million, Hart said. He declined to disclose revenue figures.
Once Aireal lands its patent for its technology, Hart said the company will be releasing a no-code platform, that will allow developers to create, design and deploy their own AR plans. Hart added that as adoption of the metaverse continues, he sees numerous verticals where Aireal’s technology can be deployed by companies for marketing, advertising and content creation.
“Our goal is to continue the traction that we're having and helping people understand that we aren’t our own metaverse, but rather, we are the tools that will power all the other various metaverses,” Hart said.
This article has been updated to show that Aireal holds the patent to its geospatial technology.
