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See the pitch deck an AR startup used to raise $13 million in seed funding to bring the metaverse to life
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- Auki Labs is developing technology to bring the metaverse to life with better AR.
- The startup has raised a $13 million rolling round, led by Animoca Brands, Kenetic, and Shima Capital.
- See the key slides from the pitch deck it used to convince investors to back its latest fundraise.
Hong Kong-based AR startup Auki Labs on Monday said it raised a $13 million rolling seed round, which it plans to use to further develop tools to bring the metaverse into the physical world.
The company is developing peer-to-peer positioning technology that it says will solve the problem of AR experiences not being the same for all users, due to AR currently relying on GPS, which uses satellites to pinpoint locations.
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“It’s very hard for us to see the same thing in AR at the moment,” said Nils Pihl, chief executive officer at Auki Labs. For example, players in an AR game like Pokémon Go! have to perform a series of calibrations to see an AR Pokémon in the same place, which can take minutes and still result in the projections being three to 15 centimeters off, said the company.
But Auki Labs says with its technology, the devices need to know only where they are relative to each other, not to a satellite, as with GPS. This allows for significantly more precise positioning and paves the way for an actual metaverse, said Pihl.
The company plans to make money by charging users and developers a minimal fee to access its positioning protocol, using its own $AUKI token. Consumers will also be able to earn tokens by “mapping” the Aukiverse, a series of interconnected virtual spaces created by the company.
Pihl sees Auki Labs’ technology being applied to things like AR companions, where shared AR would make virtual pets visible to all AR users. He pointed out that the pet care industry was worth $222 billion globally in 2021, or almost as much as the gaming industry, and that people are already accustomed to spending money on virtual assets.
Beyond AR gaming, Pihl also sees potential for advertisers to use the technology to improve advertising in the real world, by, for example, having personalized ads appear virtually in physical spaces. This would eliminate the need for generic “spray and pray” advertising, like billboards, he added.
“Companies would be financially incentivized to focus on making augmented reality ads due to their superior targeting capabilities,” said Pihl.
The round was led by Animoca Brands, Kenetic, Shima Capital, and Outlier Ventures, with participation from other Web3 funds.
Check out the key slides from Auki Labs’ rolling seed round investor deck.
Auki Labs is developing peer-to-peer positioning technology that will allow users to share AR experiences in real time regardless of where they are in the world, something that is not possible with GPS technology now.
Auki Labs
The company says slow calibration and error-prone positioning hold back AR experiences today.
Auki Labs
Pihl said VR is being used as a proxy to a true metaverse because AR’s positioning problem holds it back.
Auki Labs
GPS will never be able to support shared AR because GPS won’t work indoors, said Pihl.
Auki Labs
Shared, persistent AR will eventually let advertisers personalize and track every ad impression in the real world, said Pihl.
Auki Labs
Auki Labs’ technology eschews GPS for a decentralized peer-to-peer network that locates objects as they relate to one another, not to a satellite.
Auki Labs
Auki Labs is developing “what the cool kids call an actual metaverse,” said Pihl.
Auki Labs
Pihl said that digital twins, the tech industry’s current next iteration of GPS, are costly to develop and only allow for camera enabled devices to determine where they are.
Auki Labs
“If you could describe the location of an object [to be projected] with GPS coordinates, that doesn’t help the devices because the devices barely know where they are,” said Pihl.
Auki Labs
The company plans to charge a minimal fee for users and developers to access its positioning protocol, using its own $AUKI token. Consumers will also be able to earn tokens by “mapping” the Aukiverse.
Auki Labs
Auki Labs is developing several developer SDK to allow engineers to create shared AR experiences.
Auki Labs
The company said its protocol allows any device, from laptops to smartphones, to access shared AR experiences.
Auki Labs