On the heels of its first acquisition, Portland-based The Wild has secured another $2 million from investors.
The round was led by existing investor At.inc and included other existing investors Elevate Capital, Portland Seed Fund, Oregon Venture Fund and some individuals, said founder and CEO Gabe Paez. The company’s last raise was $2.75 million in 2017.
The Wild makes a virtual reality and augmented reality collaboration tool that allows users in different locations to work in and manipulate the same virtual space. This can be done in real time or at different times and users always see the most up-to-date version.
The company’s main market is the architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) space, but Paez has a bigger vision for the company to completely reimagine how people work together.
In February the company bought the assets of IrisVR and its flagship Prospect and Scope products. That deal built on momentum from 2020 and investor At.inc saw this moment as a time to invest more heavily and accelerate growth, Paez said.
The Wild now has 17 employees, up from 11 at the time of the IrisVR deal. It also has five open positions listed on its website including customer support and engineering. Paez expects more roles will be added this year and the company will easily double in size.
Last year, the company saw its biggest year of growth, Paez said. The first quarter of 2021 followed suit with a strong performance. Paez called the IrisVR deal a “game-changing event” for the company. Customers can now use The Wild technology to design across distributed teams early in a project and then the Prospect product comes in during the later engineering and construction process of a project.
“It’s really giving us more traction across the whole AEC (spectrum),” he said, adding that the industry is busy now as companies rework offices.
The latest funding round came together quickly after the acquisition, Paez said.
Paez’s larger vision for The Wild is to help organizations and their employees figure out the future of the workplace. The global remote work experiment necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic is causing a more widespread discussion of the future of work.
“We expect people will go back to offices but with the understanding how people’s expectations have shifted around work — how much travel and commute time. There is going to be an interesting confrontation between employers and employees,” he said.
As office buildings and infrastructure around work are retooled, Paez sees a place for The Wild and its ability to not only negate travel but its ability to improve even in-person meetings.
“Inside The Wild we can be inside the idea together not just inside a conference room,” talking about it, he said.
