Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Blippar, Backed by Qualcomm Ventures, Calls It Quits

UK-based augmented reality technology developer Blippar, which had been backed by Qualcomm Ventures, has gone into administration in the UK--their equivalent of bankruptcy--after failing to obtain new funding for the company. According to Blippar, it had been attempting to gain a "small amount of funding" as it was making a shift into the B2B market, but an un-named, existing investor "voted against the additional funding, effectively blocking the investment even if they were not asked to participate in any further financing of the business". Blippar said it expects a court appointed administrator to find a buyer for all or parts of the business. Blippar developed image recognition and augmented reality apps, which pulled interactive content from publications, brands, and objects, and had counted such brands as Anheuser Busch, General Mills, Heinz, and Conde Nast as customers. The Augmented Reality industry has seen some setbacks lately, including layoffs and abandonment of VR content development efforts at Jaunt VR, and a shutdown of the VR enters at IMAX last week.