Rival, a startup that develops technology to enable millions of users to create and share 3D content, has today come out of stealth and announced it has raised a £3.2 million pre-seed round.
The round was led by Speedinvest, with participation from New Renaissance Ventures and high-profile angels.
Bridging the 3D content gap
Rival has created a platform that allows users to browse through immersive 3D short-form content in their spatial computing headset, in a similar fashion to how TikTok or Instagram Reels work with conventional videos.
It’s easy for users to create and share their own content. In addition to uploading conventional 3D content, users will be able to convert any 2D video to an immersive 3D experience using the startup's first-of-its-kind 2D-to-3D foundational AI model. This solves the problem of there not being enough content to keep users engaged with their headsets over time.
Launching today, the Rival content platform is compatible with Meta Quest headsets, and early access is now available to the 2D-3D conversion model. Support for other headsets, including Apple Vision Pro and Pico, is in progress.
The London-based startup began as a side project for co-founders Alexander Oppermann, who has a background in entrepreneurship and private equity, and Konrad Melzer, a machine learning software engineer previously developing security software for the German FBI.
Rival has been quietly working on its product since July 2023 and assembled a team of Google, Meta, and Amazon engineers after raising the round in December 2023. Rival now plans to grow its team with more ML/AI engineers and expand its presence in the U.S. market.
Unlocking spatial computing’s potential
Spatial computing hardware is now rapidly advancing, but the lack of content is slowing mass adoption. Rival’s 3D AI technology is a catalyst to unlock spatial computing’s potential, allowing users to create, share, and explore immersive content.
