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Meta (augmented reality company)
Defunct Silicon Valley company (2012–2019) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Meta was a company that designed augmented reality products. The company was founded by Meron Gribetz in 2012,[1][2] based on the "Extramissive spatial imaging digital eye glass" technology invented by Gribetz and Mann[3] originally filed with the US Patent and Trademark office Jan 3, 2013.[4]
The company furloughed two-thirds of its approximately 100 employees in September 2018.[5] In 2019, the company declared itself insolvent after its primary lender foreclosed and sold all of the company's assets.[6]
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Products
The company's products included the Meta 1 and Meta 2 Developer Kits, headsets with which users could view and manipulate computer-generated images using optical see-through displays.[7]
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Meta was founded by Meron Gribetz while he was a student at Columbia University.[8][2] In 2013, Meta launched a crowd-funded Kickstarter campaign that raised $194,444.[9] Also in 2013, Meta was accepted into the Y Combinator's seed accelerator program.[10][11] Steve Mann became the company's chief scientist and Steven Feiner became an adviser.[12][13]
In 2014, founder Gribetz was awarded the "30 Under 30 award" in the technology category by Forbes[14][15] and Meta won best heads-up display award for the Meta Pro at the Consumer Electronics Show.[16][17] Meta presented the Meta 1 Developer Kit with a live medical demo at 2014's TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco.[18]
In September 2014, Meta began to ship its Meta 1 Developer Kit.[19][20]
In 2015, Meta raised a $23 million Series-A round from Horizons Ventures, Tim Draper, BOE Optoelectronics, Garry Tan and Alexis Ohanian of Y Combinator, Danhua Capital, Commodore Partners, and Vegas Tech Fund.[21][22]
In 2016, Meta unveiled its second-generation product at a TED conference.[23][24][25] The company received another $50M in venture-capital funds from Lenovo, Tencent, Banyan Capital, Comcast Ventures, and GQY.[26]
In March 2016, it announced the launch of the Meta 2 at the $949 to compete with the Microsoft HoloLens, which retailed for $3000. However, the Meta 2 would be a tethered and would require an external PC whereas the Hololens was a standalone product.[27]
In 2018, Meta furloughed two-thirds of its one hundred employees after it failed to secure another round of venture capital funding.[5] In January 2019, Meta declared itself insolvent after its primary lender foreclosed and sold all the company's assets.[6]
In May 2019, a company called Meta View announced it had acquired the intellectual property assets of Meta,[28] with Jay Wright, who was previously president and general manager of Qualcomm's augmented reality division, Vuforia,[29] chosen as CEO.[28] In July 2021, the company announced a new name, Campfire, and its plans to release a 3D collaboration system for design and engineering later that year.[30]
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