Meta (company)

Meta was a company that designed augmented reality products. The company was founded by Meron Gribetz in 2013.[1] The company furloughed two-thirds of its approximately 100 employees in September 2018.[2] In 2019, the company declared itself insolvent and sold all its assets in a foreclosure sale.[3] In all, investors — BOE Technology Group, Draper Associates, Horizons Ventures, and others — sank $73 million into Meta.[4]

Meta
TypePrivate
FounderMeron Gribetz, CEO
Key people
John Werner
ProductsAugmented Reality Products
Websitemetavision.com

Products

The company's products included the Meta 1 and Meta 2 Developer Kits, headsets by which users could view and manipulate holographic images.[5]

History

Meta was founded by Meron Gribetz while he was a student at Columbia University.[6][1] In 2013, Meta launched a crowd-funded Kickstarter campaign that raised $194,444.[7] Also in 2013, Meta was accepted into the Y Combinator's seed accelerator program.[8][9] Steve Mann became the company's chief scientist and Steven Feiner became an adviser.[10][11]

In 2014, founder Gribetz was awarded the "30 Under 30 award" in the technology category by Forbes[12][13] and Meta won best heads-up display award for the Meta Pro at the Consumer Electronics Show.[14][15] Meta presented the Meta 1 Developer Kit with a live medical demo at 2014's TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco.[16]

In September 2014, Meta began to ship its Meta 1 Developer Kit.[17][18]

In 2015, Meta received $23 million in Series-A funding from Horizons Ventures, Tim Draper, BOE Optoelectronics, Garry Tan and Alexis Ohanian of Y Combinator, Danhua Capital, Commodore Partners, and Vegas Tech Fund.[19][20][21]

In 2016, Meta unveiled its second-generation product at a TED conference.[22][23][24] The company received another $50M in venture-capital funds from Lenovo, Tencent, Banyan Capital, Comcast Ventures, and GQY.[25]

In March 2016, it announced the launch of the Meta 2 at the $949 to compete with the Microsoft HoloLens, which retailed for $3000. However, the Meta 2 would be a tethered and would require an external PC whereas the Hololens was a standalone product.[26]

In 2018, Meta furloughed two-thirds of its one-hundred employees after it failed to secure another round of venture-capital funding.[2] In 2019, Meta declared itself insolvent.[3]

In 2019, a company called Meta View announced it acquired the intellectual property assets of Meta.[27] Jay Wright, who previously served as president and general manager of Qualcomm's augmented reality division, Vuforia,[28] serves as CEO of Meta View.[27]

See also

References
  1. Farber, Dan (2013-09-09). "Meta's Meron Gribetz and the rise of the natural machine". CNET. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  2. Wang, Selina (September 9, 2018). "Trade War Is Hurting Silicon Valley Augmented Reality Startup". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2018-09-23.
  3. Strange, Adario (January 11, 2019) AR Startup Meta Company Shuts Down Amid Asset Foreclosure Sale, Patent Fight, & Executive Departures Next Reality News. (Retrieved January 12, 2019.)
  4. Crunchbase Funding Overview. (Retrieved January 23, 2019.)
  5. Angley, Natalie (2013-10-31). "Glasses to make you a real-life Tony Stark". CNN. Retrieved 2014-11-14.
  6. Das, Sumi (2013-10-30). "Meta's spaceglasses promise mobile augmented reality". CNET. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  7. "Kickstarter: The Most Advanced Augmented Reality Glasses". Kickstarter. 2013-05-17. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  8. Crook, Jordan (2013-08-20). "Y Combinator Summer 2013 Demo Day, Batch 2: Meet Meta, Lob, Amulyte, Weilos And More". TECHCRUNCH. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  9. Farber, Dan (2013-05-17). "Meta glasses bring 3D and your hands into the picture". CNET. Retrieved 2016-02-27.
  10. Biggs, John (2013-05-21). "Meta, The World's First Entry-Level AR Glasses, Hires The Father Of Wearable Computing As Chief Scientist". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  11. Cava, Marco (2013-07-30). "Change Agents: Seeing world through Meta's 3-D glasses". USATODAY. Retrieved 2016-02-28.
  12. "2014 30 Under 30: Technology". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  13. Guglielmo, Connie (2014-01-06). "30 Under 30: Meet Technology's Smartest, Youngest And Most Daring Innovators". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  14. "Best of CES 2014". Tom's Guide. 2014-06-09. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  15. Lunden, Ingrid (2014-01-12). "The Best of CES 2014". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  16. "Treating Virtual Patients with Meta and SimX". TechCrunch. 2014-09-09. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  17. Donovan, Jay (2014-09-18). "Meta 1 Augmented Reality Glasses Are Dragging Us Into A VR Future". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  18. Levy, Karyne (2014-09-18). "The World Is One Step Closer To Being Like An 'Iron Man' Movie". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  19. Chapman, Lizette (2015-01-28). "Augmented-Reality Headset Maker Meta Secures $23 Million". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  20. "Meta". CrunchBase. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  21. Brewster, Signe (2015-01-28). "Meta raises $23M Series A to refine its augmented reality glasses". Gigaom. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  22. Wakefield, Jane (2016-02-17). "TED 2016: Meta augmented reality headset demoed at TED". BBC. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  23. Helft, Miguel (2016-02-17). "New Augmented Reality Startup Meta Dazzles TED Crowd". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  24. Matney, Lucas (2016-03-02). "Hands-on with the $949 mind-bending Meta 2 augmented reality headset". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-03-02.
  25. "AR startup Meta raises $50M at around $300M valuation, eyes up China". Techcrunch.
  26. Helft, Miguel (2016-03-02). "Startup Meta Unveils $949 Augmented Reality Headset To Rival HoloLens". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-03-02.
  27. Roettgers, Janko (2019-05-28). "The New Owner of Meta's Assets Comes Out of Stealth, Announces CEO Appointment". Variety. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
  28. Marvin, Rob. "CES: Looking Through Augmented Reality Glasses at Our Enterprise Future". PCMAG. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
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