Leading immersive technologies studio Cooperative Innovations today revealed that it had closed a seed funding round of over £500k, from a number of sources, including angel investor Craig Fletcher, Ascension Ventures and Trend Investment Group. It also announced that it is making its proprietary animation technology, Ikabod, available to license.
The investment will enable the studio to grow its head count and launch a pilot licensing programme for Ikabod, the first of its tools and technologies that will be available. It will also allow it to expand its commitment to ongoing research and development into immersive technologies, and continue development of its original MMORPG VR game, Raiders of Erda, and another as-yet-unannounced multiplayer VR/AR title.
The studio is now actively seeking selected licensing partners for Ikabod. The technology has a wide range of animation uses but has been used primarily by the studio to solve one of the main issues of VR experiences by enabling developers to accurately reflect the player’s real-world physicality on to a VR avatar. Allowing participants to see their arm and body movements properly mirrored within the virtual environment greatly increases immersion and engagement, and Cooperative Innovations is looking forward to helping other developers make the most of this potential.
CEO and co-founder Simon Barratt is looking forward to this next phase for the business:
Securing this investment really allows us to scale-up the studio and continue to build on our core technologies and tools.
“We’re passionate about immersive experiences as the future of work, life and play, and we’re excited about the opportunity to grow the team, continue our R&D, and release some of our original IP too!”
CTO and co-founder Brian Marshall agrees:
“Ikabod came about as we needed a full IK solution that was fast enough to use on every character, while embracing easy-of-use and artistic expression. Nothing available did everything we needed, so we made it ourselves. Being able to now launch this pilot licensing programme, we’re able to really push the system in-the-wild, and continue to improve it into the future. We look forward to hearing from any developers interested in a demo.”
We can’t wait to get Ikabod into the hands of more developers and creatives.
Simon Barratt, CEO and Emma Cooper, Business Development
The business is actively seeking new team members (particularly engineers), and encourage people to apply.