The London-based start-up has raised approximately £2.5m ($3.4m) fund to expand its pioneering AR platform across the retail stores.
Dent Reality, a tech start-up based in London has made a notable mark in expanding the AR technology in the metaverse. As the creator of a trailblazing AR platform, Dent Reality has managed to secure a $3.4 million fund that they will reportedly use to extend their AR platform across the retail sector.
The funding was spearheaded by Pi Labs, the most prominent and active proptech VC in Europe, in collaboration with deep technology specialists 7Percent Ventures and Silicon Valley commerce experts Sugar Capital. 7Percent Ventures was also among the first supporters of Oculus VR among other notable angel investors.
Dent Reality plans to invest the fund in developing its own team and services that would accelerate the pace of its efforts to usher in new businesses into the metaverse. The teams will expand to new retail stores and potentially, open up new markets.
The company reported that the teams have been working with Marks & Spencer’s, one of the largest UK-based retail chains. To date, efforts have been made to test the new technology at the retailer’s Westfield London store located in White City. Dent Reality has developed a customised app for Marks & Spencer that would help their shoppers to find all the items on their shopping lists. The app also provides guidance and information to shoppers in real-time. The goal is to give the customers an enhanced shopping experience supercharged with augmented reality.
Andrew Hart, an expert of AR tech at Dent Reality stated that the same technology could be made extensive and further used in airports, educational campuses, museums, shopping centers, and so on. He also claims that the company has a long waiting list of large organisations across different sectors awaiting custom apps just like Mark & Spencer’s.
The app in question is essentially an all-in-one platform that offers an accurate indoor positioning system. More precisely, it is a digital map of a designated space that uses AR technology for seamless navigation. It functions by mapping the space and keeping the database up to date by updating the necessary information. For example, it can tell you where the item you are looking for is kept in the supermarket and gives you navigation prompts via a mobile app using augmented reality.
The proprietary technology empowers the app to work seamlessly even within a complex environment. There may be thousands of stores for each retailer and over 40,000 items per location, the app would provide a frictionless navigation and guidance system. It would enrich the customer experience by combining digital technology with real-world applications and delivering useful contextual information.
The investment comes at a crucial time when tech giants like Niantic, Meta (Facebook), and Microsoft are revealing huge updates regarding their respective visions of the metaverse. Dent Reality maintains that the metaverse will not be a separate reality. Rather, it would be an integration of real and virtual worlds. And these types of technologies will help integrate inter-world communications.
