PORTO, Portugal, Dec. 17, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Didimo, the leading creator of high-fidelity digital humans for both business and consumers, today announced that it had raised more than $4.9M from new and existing investors including Beta-I, Bynd VC, Farfetch UK Ltd., LC Ventures, and Portugal Ventures. Didimo recently also received a $2M grant from the European Commission's Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. This brings the company's total seed financing to date to more than $8m.
This new funding will be used to add to the technology team for product development and to continue commercialization and expansion through additional strategic partnerships. Didimo has already shown early traction through pilot programs with Sony, Amazon, CeekVR, Farfetch, and others.
"Throughout history, we have seen barriers be built, only to be torn down again. Today, in our internet-driven world, we have more opportunities to connect than ever before. Yet, when communication is intermediated by technology, we often lose the humanness of that connection," said Prof. Verónica Orvalho, founder and CEO of Didimo. "Our mission with the Didimo platform is to break down the barriers between the physical and digital worlds, helping humans transport themselves across that divide. We want to give everyone the chance to use technology based on the image we know best – our own."
Didimo, which means "twin" in Greek, creates lifelike digital models that businesses and individuals can use to interact and provide services online. While billions of virtual interactions occur every minute across our digital ecosystem, these interactions are still missing core human elements such as emotion, empathy, and nuance. Didimo seeks to return humanity to our digital world through their high-fidelity digital representations.
To create a Didimo, individuals need only upload or scan a photo of themselves on their smartphone. Didimo's technology then creates a ready-to-animate personalized 3D character in 20 seconds, with no engineering or artistic skills required. Individuals can use this digital version of themselves to connect to those around them in new ways in areas such as gaming, shopping, and mixed reality communication.
The platform is based on groundbreaking research in computer graphics by Prof. Orvalho, whose inventions have been used by Universal Studios, Sony, Microsoft, Amazon, and other European-funded research projects. Specifically, Orvalho's work focused on capturing the nuance of facial expressions in motion, mimicking the way in which we convey surprise, delight, sadness, and other emotions critical to the human experience.
Today, Didimo works with brands and consumers to break down the digital divide and to authentically bridge brands and consumers, communities and individuals, across the globe.
Didimo's technology has been featured on the stage of TEDX, in museums and gaming events and earned first prize at Women Who Tech at Google NYC in 2017.
Founded in Portugal in 2016, Didimo has 22 employees with teams in Porto, Vancouver, and London.
About Didimo
Didimo is the leading creator of high-fidelity digital humans. Our technology brings authenticity to virtual interactions.
For the first time, we give brands a simple way to streamline and scale the production of unique 3D characters. Our proprietary technology, which only requires a few lines of code to integrate, easily adapts to existing pipelines and is completely customizable.
We automate all stages of character creation into a one-click experience natively embedded in our partners' apps. Within seconds, based on a single selfie or scan, anyone in the world can create the most authentic digital version of themselves – their Didimo – to use across all of their devices and media.
In a world increasingly intermediated by technology, our mission is to bring the richness of human communication to every online interaction.
If you are interested in learning more, please visit: http://www.didimo.me.
SOURCE Didimo
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