Oculus VR, the creator of virtual reality headset Oculus Rift, has acquired Nimble VR, a US-based developer of hand-tracking technology for Oculus Rift, for an undisclosed sum, providing an exit for backers including chipmaker Intel.
Nimble, then known as 3Gear Systems, raised $1.9m in an April 2014 seed round backed by Intel’s corporate venturing unit Intel Capital, as well as CrunchFund, Ovo Fund and angel investor Safa Rastchy. The round was led by K9 Ventures, which also backed an earlier $350,000 seed round in 2012.
Nimble’s gesture recognition technology is also used in other motion controlled devices such as Microsoft’s Kinect sensor.
The startup had aimed to raise $62,500 for its latest product on Kickstarter but cancelled the crowdfunding, which had already secured more than $135,000 from over 1,000 backers, ahead of the acquisition news.
Oculus VR was acquired for $2bn by social media network Facebook in March this year. It acquired Nimble at the same time as 3D reconstruction technology developer 13th Lab.