It’s another exit via acquisition for serial founder Raven Zachary. His latest company — the Microsoft Hololens agency he helped cofound, Object Theory — has been acquired by ARound. Small Society, the iOS development shop Raven cofounded prior to Object Theory — a preeminent player in the then burgeoning Portland mobile scene — was acquired by Walmart Labs in 2012.
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It’s always nice to see Portland companies getting the recognition they deserve. Especially when that recognition happens on a global stage. And that’s why it was great to see Portland startup The Wild in the running for the 2020 Auggie Awards.
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If you’ve been around the Portland startup community for any amount of time, you realize that many of the startups in our midst generally have a significant period of time between their founding date and when they experience a liquidity event like acquisition or private equity. (Or I guess there’s always on IPO. But seriously, who am I kidding?) Suffice it to say, “overnight success” is not a term that has much traction here.
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We’ve seen it time and time again. The next big thing. Web, open source, cloud, mobile… And time and time again, Portland, with its early adopter culture, has been at the forefront of nascent industries, patiently waiting for their markets to form. I’ve been waiting to see what the next big thing might be. And with today’s news from RealWear, I’m inclined to think augmented reality may be the next industry that Portland is known for.
It’s rare to see Portland startups bubbling to the top of national lists. Let alone global lists. So it was really nice to see that one of our local companies had been highlighted by Crunchbase as one of the 50 hot tech companies for 2019. Coming in at #2 on the Crunchbase list is Portland augmented reality startup Streem.
Portland startup Streem, itself the second chapter for a founder who went through an acquisition with his company ONtheGO Platforms, today announced that they are acquiring Selerio, a London startup focused on the AR space.
Like web, open source, and mobile before it, Portland has taken a real affinity to virtual reality and augmented reality. We just really seem to love that technology that hasn’t quite become a market yet. Call us early adopters. Or just call us curious.
Everyone knows that Apple can be a little stringent when it comes to approving applications and content for the App Store. So it’s no surprise that Portland startup Torch has had to make a couple of attempts to get some content approved. But the reason they’re getting rejected? That’s what’s interesting.
If you’ve talked to me about markets that have a lot of potential in Portland, we’ve no doubt discussed reality of some flavor or another. Virtual, Augmented, Immersive, Experiential… whatever you want to call it, folks in Portland have been exploring creating content with those technologies for years. And now, XR is inspiring a new crop of products in town that enable folks to create that content more easily.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times: Portland has an incredibly promising AR/VR/Mixed Reality community. From folks who create content to companies that are building the infrastructure and tools to deliver it, we’ve got a wealth of interesting startups and creatives in this still nascent market. And it’s always good to get all of those folks together. Which is what’s happening during Portland Startup Week with Immersive Startups.
