You’ve gotta spend money to make money; InstaVR, a tool for creating 360-degree marketing and experiential apps just raised $2 million in a series A investment round.
The round was led by The Venture Reality Fund. InstaVR is a little bit like a game development engine like Unreal or Unity, only specifically designed for 360-degree experiences hosted either in a browser or in an app. It allows you to add annotations and other details to panoramic images and video and then publish that content. It also provides you with analytical tools like heat mapping, which lets companies know where people are looking most when they view content.
Speaking to Upload, company founder Daniel H. Haga clarified that the money would go toward “product development resources” as well as “sales and marketing operations.”
Accompanying this week’s news was the reveal of a new app created by InstaVR in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution, Renwick Gallery WONDER 360. The iOS and Android piece lets users explore the titular gallery in Washington D.C., following a specific exhibit. Haga explained that the app was not only created using InstaVR, but a video hotspot feature was also integrated to display video stories of the exhibit’s nine artists in specific places.
“This feature is a really powerful way to tell the story about the artwork, and the feature will be added by our product development team in the next few days,” Haga said.
Elsewhere, engineering firm AECOM is using InstaVR for training modules that its employees view on Gear VR units. The company claims that over it saw over 2,000 users during its beta testing phase for use across a wide range of industries.
The platform currently works with mobile-based headsets like Google Cardboard and Gear VR, though Haga confirmed that the company is planning to add support for the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive in the future.
