Two months after closing a $10 million deal and kicking off a 10-plus city national expansion, Tampa’s Vū Technologies has raised another multimillion-dollar extension round.
It brings the total to $17 million, which is the largest seed round raised in the state, according to Crunchbase.
“Originally [when we started as a company], we had to go out and knock on a lot of doors, but the latest response has been fantastic,” Mark Swanson, chairman of Vū Technologies and acting CFO, said. “We’re in a very unique position because it’s a very new market, and we — very luckily — got a head start in it.”
The extension was led by Minneapolis-based ADX Labs, which led the previous $10 million funding round. Tampa-based Topmark Partners and other angel investor syndicates throughout the state and Texas also participated.
“Vū Studios is leading the virtual production revolution,” Steve Lux, managing partner at Topmark Partners, said in a statement. “As corporations, ad agencies and other content creators realize the advantages of virtual production, we are excited to partner with Vū to support their continued growth as they expand their virtual studio network across the country.”
Vū Technologies is the sister company to Diamond View Studios and is best known for its innovative film studio at the University Mall near the University of South Florida. When the 2020 pandemic initially brought businesses across sectors to a halt, the company used its Small Business Administration-backed PPP loan to launch Vū.
“It’s not very often you get an entire company whose business was shut down saying, ‘For the next six months, let’s do something completely different,’” Swanson said of CEO and company co-founder Tim Moore. “To his credit, he said, ‘Let’s take a bet on it.’”
According to Swanson, the company had $5.7 million in revenue in its first year and, with the latest funding, has a projected valuation of $57 million.
Similar to the first half of the seed round, the second portion will be used for studio expansions. Its model deploys technology and signature large-scale screens across the country, costing roughly $1 million to $3 million to launch each studio. That expansion has already begun, with a Nashville studio opening in January and its Las Vegas studio opening last week.
Swanson projected either Orlando or New York will be the next city to open a studio and that the company would raise more funding for an undisclosed amount toward the beginning of next year.
“If everything goes well a year from now, we’ll raise a Series A,” he said. “We’re on a very aggressive growth plan and being very deliberate.”
