Another day, another virtual reality startup sprouting up in Seattle.
This time it’s Zumobi co-founder John SanGiovanni jumping into the virtual reality space with a new startup called 18Angles. He’s teaming up with co-founder Sean House, a former Zumobi and Glympse engineer, for the new company.
18Angles just reeled in $500,000 of a larger $2.5 million round, but SanGiovanni wouldn’t disclose his investors. He declined to provide more details about the new startup, only saying that it’s developing communication technology for virtual reality and augmented reality.
The only employees thus far are SanGiovanni and House. Here’s the company description on LinkedIn:
In the coming years, Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) will transform the way people communicate and collaborate. 18Angles is exploring and inventing new human communication patterns for this next wave of immersive computing… Stay tuned.
SanGiovanni, a former GeekWire Geek of the Week, co-founded Zumobi back in 2007. The Seattle startup, which has raised $12 million to date, helps customers drive engagement with its mobile content marketing platform and traces its roots to technology spun out of Microsoft Research, where SanGiovanni previously worked.
SanGiovanni said he is “absolutely” still working at Zumobi as its director of advanced user interaction.
18Angles is yet another company in Seattle developing virtual reality technology, from small teams of entrepreneurs to corporations like Microsoft and Valve that are building both hardware and software for virtual reality.
Some of the new startups include companies like Envelop VR, Pluto VR, Pixvana, VREAL, Convrge and Endeavor One. There are also the bigger names like Valve and Microsoft that are headquartered in the region and are developing devices like the HoloLens and the HTC Vive. Don’t forget about Oculus, which is headquartered in California but has large offices in Seattle where engineers are helping build the Rift headset and Gear VR.
