Vū Technologies, the sister company of Tampa-based Diamond View Studios, has received a multi-million funding set to spur its national expansion.
The company announced Monday it closed a $10 million seed round, led entirely by Minneapolis-based ADX Labs.
"ADX is a strategic investor — they bring a lot more to the table than just the $10 million," Tim Moore, CEO and co-founder of Vū, said. "They're a tech conglomerate and own several tech companies, working with artificial intelligence and machine learning among several other things, and we think our technologies are pretty complementary."
ADX Labs will join Vū Technologies' board of directors, advising on cybersecurity, legal, financial, networking and marketing matters.
"Vū Studios represents the pinnacle of virtual production technology and integration," Steven Renner, founder of ADX Labs, said in a statement. "The unique Vū Studios offering has transformed the economics of film and video production. We are thrilled to have invested in what will soon become the world’s largest network of game-changing ... video studios.”
Vū Technologies is best known for its innovative film studio at the University Mall near the University of South Florida. It is home to a 10,000 square-foot virtual production studio with a 40-foot LED wall intended to replace green screens, and a London-manufactured robot that brings precision camera movement to productions.
With the new funding, Jon Davila, Vū Technologies' president and co-founder, said to expect a Nashville studio opening in the next three weeks, with a Las Vegas studio expected by March 1, 2022. There are also plans to expand to Orlando, Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Stamford, Connecticut and Toledo, Ohio before the end of next year.
"Because it's a new, emerging technology, there's an opportunity to be a market leader just by speed," Moore said, adding the company built 10 other studios for companies before deciding to expand themselves. "We realized if we build it for others, we can build it ourselves — which is very capital intensive, so now with ADX we can build it ourselves."
Vū Technologies currently has roughly 34 employees, with Diamond View having another 32. Moore said he expects to hire an additional 100 throughout the next year with the national expansion, and an additional 30 to 40 in Tampa Bay to help with technology development.
This is the first funding for the studio. The company is planning to raise a Series A round for a larger amount, although stated it is working on the timeline and the exact amount.
The latest funding puts Vū at an estimated $50 million valuation, with the expectation to hit the coveted $1 billion valuation, known as a "unicorn" status in the tech world, by 2023. With the rise in valuation also comes thoughts of an acquisition or IPO, both of which Moore says he is open to.
"We've had a tremendous year last year and expect [our valuation] to go up quite a bit in the next year," he said. "In the content industry there are some big players — Netflix, Amazon — so there's potential for a large acquisition or IPO."
In the interim, the team also plans to continue its support in the local education innovation scene. In February, the studio launched a partnership with the University of Tampa to allow students to get hands-on experience in the virtual reality world. And in September, it donated $500,000 worth of equipment to USF. It also works with Florida State University, Full Sail University and Gainesville-based Santa Fe College.
"Our plan is to grow the workforce in virtual production, and each of the cities that we build studios in, we want to partner with universities in the area," Moore said. "We're very aggressive on building the workforce of the future."
