Ultraleap, a UK-based mid-air haptics technology developer spun out of University of Bristol, has closed a £60m ($81m) series D round featuring internet and gaming group Tencent.
Financial services firm China Merchants Bank’s CMB International arm also took part in the round alongside commercialisation firm IP Group, Mayfair Equity Partners and British Patient Capital’s Future Fund: Breakthrough vehicle. It has now raised over $164m altogether.
Founded in 2013 as Ultrahaptics, Ultraleap has created haptics interface and hand-tracking software able to capture all the subtlety and complexity of natural hand movements for virtual and extended reality systems.
The company recently launched its fifth-generation hand-tracking technology, Gemini, which is available across multiple platforms, camera systems and third-party hardware. It will use the capital to further develop and commercialise its technology for existing and next generation computing platforms.
Ultraleap closed a $44.8m round in 2018 led by Mayfair Equity Partners with backing from electronic product importer Cornes Technology, IP Group, Hostplus, Woodford Investment and Dolby Family Ventures.
Cornes had previously invested in a $23m series B round for the company in 2017 together with IP Group, Woodford Investment and Dolby Family Ventures, following a $15.6m series A round two years earlier led by Woodford Investment and backed by existing investor IP Group.