Envisics, a UK-based developer of augmented reality display technology, raised about $50m yesterday in a series B round featuring automotive component producer Hyundai Mobis and carmakers General Motors and SAIC Motors.
The round included family offices Tarsadia Investments and Van Tuyl Companies, the latter representing the family behind car dealership chain Van Tuyl Group. It valued Envisics at more than $250m, founder and CEO Jamieson Christmas told TechCrunch.
Envisics provides holographic technologies for augmented reality head-up displays (AR HUDs) for use in in-car electronics systems, and the strategic investors will help the company develop its AR HUD products. It has not revealed details of past funding.
The company’s initial holographic HUD technology was released in 2014, when it was a subsidiary of holographic display producer Two Trees Photonics, and sold more than 150,000 units. AR glasses maker Daqri acquired Two Trees in 2016 and spun Envisics off in 2018.
Hwan Cho, chief technology officer (CTO) of South Korea-based Hyundai Mobis, said: “Hyundai Mobis will jointly develop autonomous driving specialised AR HUDs with Envisics, targeting mass production by 2025.”
Matt Tsien, CTO at General Motors and president of corporate venturing unit GM Ventures, added: “This technology will help us revolutionise the in-vehicle experience with a variety of safe, highly integrated and intuitive applications, including applications that will enhance the hands-free driving experience in future [electric vehicles], like the Cadillac Lyriq.”
Michael Cohen, investment director at SAIC Capital, the corporate venturing unit for China-based car maker SAIC, said it would deploy Envisics’ AR-HUDs “in our next generation of cars for both the Chinese domestic and global markets”.
