California software maker Autodesk Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK) has acquired Portland virtual and augmented reality startup The Wild.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Autodesk executives noted the talent and technology developed by The Wild will be the foundation for the larger company’s extended reality strategy.
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 ability to shift between VR and AR has come to be known as extended reality, or XR.
The Wild’s main market is the architecture, engineering and construction industry, which happens to a big area of focus for Autodesk as well.
“Our acquisition of The Wild reflects the rapid transformation taking place in the building industry, from the complexity of projects to the geographic diversity of teams who design, construct, and operate them,” said Andrew Anagnost, CEO and president of Autodesk in a written statement. “XR is a must-have business imperative for today and an important part of Autodesk’s Forge platform vision.”
Last February, The Wild made its own first acquisition scooping up the assets of IrisVR. A couple of months later the company disclosed it raised another $2 million from investors as it worked to keep up with huge growth it saw coming out of 2020.
The Wild has more than 700 customers and some were also customers of Autodesk, such as the $3 billion engineering and construction firm Black & Veatch.
In a blog post about the deal, The Wild CEO Gabe Paez said the company will continue on under the new ownership. He said the combination of The Wild and Autodesk was a natural one as The Wild is helping build a new standard in XR tools and Autodesk has a history of doing that in the building industry, from developing computer-aided design drawing in the 1980s, to 3D modeling in the 1990s and building information modeling in the 2000s.
“They understand that XR will revolutionize data interaction and project collaboration for professionals, especially for those in the AEC industry. They understand that this shift will profoundly change the way their customers work together across all the industries that they serve. This acquisition represents their commitment to lead the way in XR and to further deliver integrated solutions that leverage their core products,” Paez wrote.
Nic Fonta, general manager of XR at Autodesk said the new technology is ready for broader adoption as the hardware is more accessible, customers understand the need for remote collaboration and it can offer a more sustainable work model.
“Accessibility, affordability, as well as the future of digital twinning and metaverse, create the right environment and business rationale for advancing XR technology within the AEC industry,” he said in a written statement.
The Wild has 26 employees and has been hiring steadily. It was planning to have 60 employees by the end of this year. The 5-year-old company has raised around $4 million from investors. Backers include Oregon Venture Fund, Elevate Capital and At.inc.
San Rafael, California-based Autodesk already has an office in Portland in the Central Eastside Industrial District. The company declined to state how many Portland-based employees it has but in 2020 it reported 367 local employees. The company has more than 11,500 employees worldwide.
In 2021, Autodesk made a big acquisition locally, buying water systems software maker Innovyze for $1 billion.
