Meta (augmented reality company)
| Meta (augmented reality company) | |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| Industry | Augmented Reality |
| Founded | 2012 |
| Founder | Meron Gribetz |
| Headquarters | Redwood City, California, United States |
| Notable Personnel | Meron Gribetz (CEO), Steve Mann (chief scientist) |
| Products | Augmented reality headsets (Meta 1, Meta 2) |
Meta (also referred to as Meta Company) was a United States augmented reality startup that designed optical see-through AR headsets, best known for the Meta 1 and Meta 2 developer kits. It was founded in 2012 by Meron Gribetz and was based in Redwood City, California.[1][2] The company is not connected to Meta Platforms, the parent of Facebook, which adopted the Meta name in 2021.
Meta was one of the earliest companies to ship consumer-priced see-through AR glasses, positioning its hardware as a lower-cost rival to the Microsoft HoloLens. After raising tens of millions of dollars from investors including Lenovo, Tencent, and Comcast Ventures, the company ran short of funding, furloughed most of its staff in 2018, and was declared insolvent in January 2019 when its lender foreclosed on its assets.[3][4]
History
Founding and early funding
Meta was founded in 2012 by Meron Gribetz, who began the work while he was a student at Columbia University. The company's technology drew on patents co-developed with Steve Mann, a wearable-computing researcher who served as Meta's chief scientist.[2] Meta was accepted into the Y Combinator startup accelerator, and in March 2013 it ran a Kickstarter campaign for its first developer kit that raised 194,444 US dollars.[2][1]
The company raised a 23 million US dollar Series A round in 2015 from backers that included Horizons Ventures, Tim Draper, Garry Tan, and Alexis Ohanian.[2][1] A later round added strategic investors such as Lenovo, Tencent, and Comcast Ventures. Reports of the company's total funding vary: several accounts put the figure around 73 million US dollars across its Series A and Series B, while one TechCrunch report cited nearly 83 million US dollars raised, with a peak valuation of roughly 300 million US dollars and backing from around two dozen firms and individuals including Dolby.[3][5]
Products and the TED Talk
Meta shipped its first product, the Meta 1 developer kit, in 2014. Gribetz raised the company's public profile with a 2016 TED Talk that presented augmented reality as a successor to the smartphone and the personal computer.[3][2] On March 2, 2016 the company announced the Meta 2, an optical see-through headset with a near 90-degree field of view and a 2560x1440 display, tethered to a Windows PC and controlled with hand gestures. It went up for pre-order at 949 US dollars, undercutting the HoloLens, with shipping initially promised for the third quarter of 2016.[1][6] The Meta 2 ultimately reached developers later than planned, and former employees later estimated that the company sold somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 units of the headset.[3]
Funding collapse and furloughs
Gribetz spent much of 2017 and 2018 trying to close a later funding round, including roughly 25 trips to China to court investors.[3] In September 2018 a planned Chinese-led investment, reported at around 20 million US dollars, fell through amid United States and China trade tensions. Without that money, Meta furloughed about two-thirds of its roughly 100 employees, keeping a skeleton staff of around 15.[3][5] Around the same period the company was sued by Genedics LLC, which accused Meta of infringing patents covering methods for manipulating and inputting images in three-dimensional space.[4]
Insolvency and asset sale
In January 2019 Meta confirmed it was insolvent. In a court filing tied to the Genedics suit, chief financial officer John Sines stated that "Meta Company is insolvent" and lacked the resources to retain counsel or make a settlement offer.[4] The bank holding Meta's secured debt foreclosed and sold all of the company's assets in a Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) foreclosure sale, for less than the outstanding loan amount.[4][3] Gribetz said he was "no longer the owner of the company" and described the buyer only as a "known name" that intended to support the headsets already on the market.[5]
The buyer was later identified as Meta View Inc., a newly formed entity tied to Mayer Gniwisch, a general partner at the Israel-based firm Olive Tree Ventures; the deal transferred Meta's trademarks and intellectual property.[7] By May 2019 the venture operating as Meta View had named Jay Wright, formerly of Qualcomm's Vuforia augmented reality business, as its chief executive.[2]
Technology
Meta's headsets were optical see-through devices: rather than passing camera video through to a screen, they used transparent combiners so the wearer could see digital imagery overlaid on the real world.[2] The Meta 2 paired this with a wide, near 90-degree field of view, a 2560x1440 panel, and outward-facing sensors and a camera for mapping the surroundings and tracking the user's hands. Interaction was gesture-based; in one demonstration a reviewer reached out, closed a hand into a fist to grab a virtual object, and moved it in space.[1] Because the Meta 2 relied on a wired connection to a desktop PC for processing and power, it was a tethered headset rather than a self-contained one, a trade-off that helped keep its price far below standalone competitors.[1][6]
Products
| Product | Year | Type | Notable details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meta 1 | 2014 | Optical see-through AR developer kit | First shipping product; followed the company's 2013 Kickstarter and Y Combinator term[2][3] |
| Meta 2 | 2016 (announced) | Tethered AR developer kit | Near 90-degree field of view; 2560x1440 display; gesture input; tethered to a Windows PC; 949 US dollars at pre-order[1][6] |
Reception and legacy
The Meta 2 drew attention at its 2016 unveiling for offering a much wider field of view than the original HoloLens at a lower price, and the press treated it as one of the more ambitious early attempts at consumer-oriented see-through AR.[1][6] Coverage of the company's 2019 collapse framed it as a cautionary tale about the cost of building AR hardware: Meta had been one of the first companies to ship end-to-end AR glasses but ran out of money before the market matured, a fate shared with other well-funded AR startups of the same era such as Magic Leap.[5][3]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 "Hands-on with the $949 mind-bending Meta 2 augmented reality headset". 2016-03-02. https://techcrunch.com/2016/03/02/hands-on-with-the-949-mind-bending-meta-2-augmented-reality-headset/.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 "Meta (augmented reality company)". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta_(augmented_reality_company).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 "The Story Behind Meta, the AR Startup That Just Had Its Assets Sold to a Mystery Buyer". 2019-01-22. https://variety.com/2019/digital/features/meta-ar-startup-asset-sale-1203111585/.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "CES 2019: Meta Founder Confirms Insolvency & Liquidation to Unnamed Buyer". 2019-01-17. https://www.roadtovr.com/meta-shuts-amidst-patent-infringement-lawsuit-asset-liquidation/.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 "AR startup Meta's assets sold to a mystery 'known name' that will support existing headsets". 2019-01-17. https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/17/meta-ar-caveat-emptor/.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "'Meta 2' AR Glasses Available to Pre-order, 1440p with 90 Degree FOV for $949". 2016-03-02. https://www.roadtovr.com/meta-2-ar-glasses-available-to-pre-order-1440p-with-90-degree-fov-for-949/.
- ↑ "Meta AR Assets Acquired by Former Investor (EXCLUSIVE)". 2019-02-01. https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/meta-trademarks-sold-investor-1203126303/.