Startups Venture

Last Week In Venture: Invisible Computing, Super Visions, And Miles Of Fibers

Hello and welcome back to Last Week In Venture, Crunchbase News’s weekly roundup of interesting deals that may have flown under your radar.

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Before getting into that though… it’s been a heck of a week. Hell, it’s been a heck of a day! On Friday, video conferencing service Zoom and social site Pinterest filed paperwork to go public. (Lord have mercy on the SEC clerks!) Earlier in the week, our own Savannah Dowling stopped by part deux of YC Demo Day, Natasha Mascarenhas covered recent developments at Backstage Capital, Mary Ann Azevedo published her profile of Obvious Ventures, and Joanna Glasner tracked the rise of corporate biotech. We also covered supergiant rounds raised by Glossier and Doctolib, as well as big buys by Spark Networks and Atlassian. And that’s just a part of it.

There’s a lot to keep up with besides which startups are raising what, and who’s going heading for the exit. But there are plenty of interesting companies outside the spotlight, and their contributions to the broader tech landscape is worth highlighting.

Let’s dive into some deals from the week that was in venture-land.

Sector Spotlight: Augmented Reality

As an escape from actual reality, some voyage into the virtual. Augmenting the real world may be the way to go. With augmented reality, there’s a possible future of never forgetting someone’s name, because that information will be displayed above them through a smart lens. (A person can dream, right?!)

In the present, though, AR layers on a bit of digital magic to make real-world tasks just a bit easier. Some venture investors see dollar signs in AR tech and its applications. Here are some deals from last week:

And to close out this little spotlight on AR: by design, it’s tough for a Y Combinator-backed startup to “fly under anyone’s radar” but Adventurous Co and Allure Systems both pitched on the YC Demo Day stage this week.

  • Adventurous Co builds immersive family-oriented adventure experiences, of which AR is a part. The experiences also include puzzles and live actors. Its adventures are currently available in San Francisco.
  • Allure Systems helps fashion ecommerce brands create “on-figure garment images” using digital compositing technology. Basically, retailers capture images of their garments on Allure Systems-supplied mannequins and its software digitally fits the images onto images of human clothing models, who only need to pose a handful of times.

Both companies raised $150,000 from YC.

Other Interesting Rounds

And with that, we’re done for the week. Go out there and have some fun this weekend! It’s okay to turn off the news every once in awhile, especially these days. See you back here on Monday.

mage Credits: Last Week In Venture graphic created by JD Battles. Photo by Bady Qb, via Unsplash.

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