UTokyo IPC fund provides VividQ with £3 million to boost its 3D holographic display business

TOKYO, Japan, September 10, 2021 – University of Tokyo Innovation Platform Co., Ltd. (UTokyo IPC) announced today it had provided £3 million from its “IPC Fund 1” to VividQ Ltd., a British start-up providing revolutionary platform software for 3D holographic displays. This round of investment was led by UTokyo IPC and joined by venture capital firms including University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners Co., Ltd. (UTEC), Miyako Capital Co., Ltd. and European institutional investors.

This funding will be used to scale up VividQ’s team and expand its operations in the Asia-Pacific region as the firm makes advances in core applications of computer-generated holography (CGH); automotive head-up displays (HUD); and augmented reality (AR) wearables. VividQ also brings holography to consumer electronics, with holographic liquid crystal display screens.

“The future of display is holography,” said Mikio Kawahara, UTokyo IPC’s Chief Investment Officer. “The demand for improved 3D images in real-world settings is growing across the whole display industry. VividQ’s products will make the future ambitions of many consumer electronics businesses a reality. We are proud to invest in this expert team and look forward to supporting VividQ’s growth and expansion in Asian markets.”

Darran Milne, Co-Founder and CEO of VividQ, commented: “Scenes we know from films, from Iron Man to Star Trek, are becoming closer to reality than ever. At VividQ, we are on a mission to bring holographic displays to the world for the first time. Our solutions help bring innovative display products to the automotive industry, improve AR experiences, and soon will change how we interact with personal devices from laptops to mobiles.”

IPC Fund 1 aims to nurture sustainable innovation ecosystem around UTokyo

IPC Fund 1 (officially called the Innovation Platform 1 Investment Limited Partnership) is used to facilitate start-ups linked with the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) and enhance the quality and quantity of venture capital associated with the university. This will help create a sustainable innovation ecosystem enveloping UTokyo and make the university a global hub for generating start-ups. IPC Fund 1 has provided funds through investment limited partnerships with six venture capital firms (fund of funds) and directly invested in more than 20 start-ups connected to UTokyo. Direct investment efforts are on-going today.

VividQ’s technology makes 3D holographic display a reality

VividQ was established in 2015 by a management team comprising mainly of University of Cambridge doctoral degree graduates and graduates from its business school. The start-up, which is headquartered in Cambridge, provides innovative platform software for 3D holography.

Ordinary photographs and videos record light’s intensity (amplitude) and color (wave length). Holography, on the other hand, records and reproduces objects three dimensionally with depth by recording the phase of light waves in addition to the amplitude and wave length.

Furthermore, current technologies used in AR and virtual reality (VR) to express three dimensions take advantage of the parallax (the apparent movement of an object when looked at from different positions) of both eyes and allow viewers to experience virtual three dimensions. Using AR or VR devices for long periods, however, can trigger vergence-accommodation conflict, which occurs when a user’s brain receives mismatching cues between the distance of a virtual 3D object and the focusing distance required for the eyes to focus on that object. This can cause focusing problems and eyestrain. Holography’s ability to express the genuine depth of an object has earned it a reputation as the “ultimate 3D technology.”

Today, holographic technologies are widely used in anti-counterfeiting measures (for bills and credit cards, for example), but their complexity has limited their industrial applications.

VividQ’s CGH generates diffraction images with a computational algorithm and a spatial light modulator, a device to manipulate light by modulating the amplitude and phase of light waves. This can be described as a holographic version of computer graphics (CG). CGH is computationally intensive so it had been considered difficult to make sufficient real-time calculations even with state-of-the-art equipment. VividQ’s latest technology addresses this daunting problem. The unique algorithm VividQ developed succeeded in making real-time calculations for CGH for the first time. VividQ’s platform software for 3D holography is applicable for a wide range of devices, including AR glasses and head-mounted displays (HMD) and automotive HUD.

UTokyo IPC, together with its investment partners UTEC and Miyako Capital, will advance tie-ups among software technology developed by VividQ; technologies for electronic and optical components in which Japanese companies excel; and non-contact device-manipulating technology generated from UTokyo’s research. This will promote robust cross-border alliances between the academic community, business firms and start-ups.

To further develop and accelerate the innovation ecosystem around UTokyo, UTokyo IPC will generate, boost and invest in start-ups that use academic and research results through cooperation with venture capital firms and companies promoting open innovation.

VividQ

Established in March 2015, VividQ develops software for 3D holography.

Address: Castle Park, Sheraton House, Cambridge CB30Ax, UK

Representative director: Darran Milne, Ph.D., Co-Founder and CEO

Website: https://vivid-q.com/

UTokyo IPC

Established in 2016, UTokyo IPC is the venture investment arm of the University of Tokyo, a world-leading research institution that has its main campus in Tokyo, Japan.

UTokyo IPC has invested in more than 20 university-driven tech startups across all stages, via the mutually complementary IPC 1 Fund and AOI 1 Fund.

UTokyo IPC team members passionately support promising entrepreneurs at every step in the process of starting a new business. The “1stRound” incubation program provides intensive hands-on assistance and financial support to entrepreneurs.

Address: 261 Entrepreneur Lab., South Clinical Research Bldg., Hongo 7-3-1, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo

Representative director: Katsuhiko Oizumi, President and CEO

Website: https://www.utokyo-ipc.co.jp/

Contact

University of Tokyo Innovation Platform Co., Ltd.

261 Entrepreneur Lab., South Clinical Research Bldg., Hongo 7-3-1, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo

Tel: +81-(0)3-3830-0200

Fax: +81-(0)3-3830-0183

Email: info2@utokyo-ipc.co.jp