SA国际传媒

Hello and welcome back to Last Week In Venture, SA国际传媒 News鈥檚 weekly roundup of interesting deals that may have flown under your radar.

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Before getting into that though鈥� it鈥檚 been a heck of a week. Hell, it鈥檚 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鈥檚 just a part of it.

There鈥檚 a lot to keep up with besides which startups are raising what, and who鈥檚 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鈥檚 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鈥檚 a possible future of never forgetting someone鈥檚 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:

• Saratoga, CA-based company raised round. A number of investors鈥攊ncluding Google-backed , , , and 鈥攑articipated in the deal. The relatively stealthy company is working in the field of 鈥渋nvisible computing,鈥� according . The company for a number of positions, including regulatory clearance roles in medical devices, the only clear clue as to what Mojo Vision might be working on.
• , a startup building AR-powered expert assistance services to technical and industrial workers, raised led by ; in the deal. According to in SiliconAngle, 鈥淏y using wearable AR headsets, an expert at a desk can see exactly what the [on-site] technician sees and can 鈥榙raw鈥� directly over the worker鈥檚 vision. That means expert and specialized knowledge is even closer than before.鈥�
• raised led by . Participating investors include the and . The Norfolk, VA-based company is 鈥渁 productivity platform that increases safety and efficiency. Using augmented reality, teams can create and share real-time spatial information, leveraging real-world data in the real world.鈥� Like ScopeAR, it鈥檚 also targeting its solution at large-scale manufacturing and other industrial applications.

And to close out this little spotlight on AR: by design, it鈥檚 tough for a -backed startup to 鈥渇ly under anyone鈥檚 radar鈥� but and 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 鈥渙n-figure garment images鈥� 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

• Behind many wonders of the modern world鈥攆rom water filtration to tissue regeneration鈥攖here’s probably a mat of nanofibers involved somewhere. Rapid City, SD-based is in the business of producing 鈥渃utting edge separation media composed of functionalized nanofibers,鈥� according to its SA国际传媒 profile. A profile of the company in Minnesota Business (republished ) says the firm鈥檚 filtration-focused fibers are 1,000 times narrower than a human hair: 鈥淸A] 12-inch square piece of the firm鈥檚 sticky nanofilter material might contain 5,000 miles of continuous, microscopic fiber.鈥� The company from . Its CEO is Craig Arnold, who was director of the for nearly 6 years. and invented the tech at the .
• Alexandria, VA-based builds tools for ecommerce brands which sell their wares through Amazon. The company鈥檚 advertising management solution has helped over 1,000 brands promote themselves on the giant ecommerce platform. Until now, the company has been bootstrapped, but this week it announced it raised . The round was led by ; , , , and (co-founder of Capital One) participated in the deal. In separate but tangentially relevant related news, Amazon announced it in its mobile application.

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聽聽Photo by Bady Qb, via Unsplash.