SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Tilt Five, an entertainment system provider that uses proprietary augmented reality (AR) glasses, a game board, and a wand controller to engage players in tabletop and video games in 3D holographic environments, today announced that it has secured $7.5 million in Series A funding. SIP Global Partners led the round with participation from top-tier investors BITKRAFT Ventures, Galaxy Interactive, Logitech, and games industry innovator Ken Birdwell. SIP Global Partners' Jeffrey Smith will join Tilt Five's board of directors. Following a $1.7 million Kickstarter campaign in October 2019–the largest AR crowdfunding campaign ever–the Series A funding will be used to hire additional employees, build partnerships, and expand available content.
"Tilt Five was founded on the idea that we can bring family and friends together to play in the real world, enhanced with the magical capabilities of immersive 3D technology," said Jeri Ellsworth, Tilt Five CEO. "While the tech giants invest billions in far-off solutions, this investment expands our ability to deliver on a proven set of technologies resulting in an affordable, social and wearable device."
By using the proprietary AR glasses, a game board, and a wand controller, Tilt Five engages players in tabletop and video games in shared 3D holographic environments. Players will be able to enter dynamic worlds, as popular games spring to life allowing them to explore, battle, and solve puzzles with friends both locally and remotely on their tables. Features include:
- Tilt Five™ AR glasses that are designed with a patented and unprecedented 110-degree field-of-view optical system, bringing immersive 3D worlds to life right on the table with vivid colors and natural depth of field.
- The glasses weigh just under 95 grams, one-third of typical mixed-reality headsets, and provide a comfortable experience for all-day game sessions.
- A six-degrees-of-freedom wand controller that enables players to reach into and physically control and interact with the environments and characters.
- An embedded camera system that tracks physical objects like game pieces and hands and seamlessly blends them with virtual ones.
- Stereo speakers and microphone so players can immerse themselves in solo experiences or converse with their friends while playing together remotely.
- A unique optical system that gives each player their own view into shared virtual worlds. No need for split screens or hiding card decks, players can still call out to each other and see the physical world around them.
Games of all genres work with Tilt Five™, including simulation, RPG adventures, puzzle, esports, arcade, strategy games, classic tabletop, action video, and party games. Content from third-party developers will include games from Tabletopia, HappyGiant, Niffler, PlayStack, Beatshapers, Playito, Monocle Society, Deck13, GFX47, and Battle Map Studio.
According to Newzoo, global video game sales are expected to top $159 billion in 2020, growing 9.3% annually and according to Goldman Sachs, the augmented reality headset market is valued at $6.8 billion in 2020, growing at a staggering 250% over the past year.
"SIP Global Partners invested in Tilt Five because we believe that, with its revolutionary approach to AR and deeply collaborative experiences, Tilt Five is poised to be the first globally successful consumer AR game system," said Jeffrey Smith, General Partner of SIP Global Partners and Board Member of Tilt Five. "We've been closely following Tilt Five's CEO Jeri Ellsworth's career and believe she and her team have the technical acumen and depth of experience to make Tilt Five an incredible success."
"By focusing on a grounded use case, Tilt Five is able to achieve product specifications that are far beyond what any other AR headset can deliver; high brightness, a wide field of view, ample comfort and unlimited social interaction," said Avi Bar-Zeev, XR pioneer who helped the conception of Microsoft HoloLens, Amazon's Echo Frames and undisclosed projects at Apple.
Tilt Five has begun ramping up production and will commence shipping kits to Kickstarter backers and pre-order customers over the coming two quarters. Tilt Five™ XE kits include a pair of AR glasses, a game board and a wand. XE Kits are currently $359 and are available to pre-order at https://www.tiltfive.com/. Tilt Five will also provide Social Kits that will include 3 AR glasses, 3 wands and a gameboard, available later in 2021.
About Tilt Five
Tilt Five is an entertainment system provider that uses proprietary augmented reality (AR) glasses, a game board and a wand controller to engage players in tabletop and video games in 3D holographic environments. Founded by a team of technical visionaries with decades of experience working for consumer technology leaders such as Valve and Google, Tilt Five aims to provide a comfortable, social and immersive AR experience for consumers. Tilt Five is backed by over 3,000 Kickstarters, SIP Global Partners, BITKRAFT Ventures, Galaxy Interactive, Logitech, and games industry leader Ken Birdwell. Founded in November 2017, Tilt Five is headquartered in Silicon Valley. For more information, please visit http://www.tiltfive.com and follow us on Twitter.
About SIP Global Partners
SIP Global Partners invests in transformative US technology startups as a cross-border VC partner to accelerate growth across Asia, including Japan, ASEAN and the GCC. SIP leverages its dual-headquarters in the US and Japan, its principals' 40-year history of building global companies and unique market access to accelerate international growth for portfolio companies into massive markets with underserved entry points across Asia. The fund invests in companies driving the "Global Connected Economy" in sectors such as AR/VR/XR, AI/ML, edge computing, digital media, network Infrastructure (5G), gaming and enterprise software. Limited partners include Global Tech 50 corporates and top-tier family offices. For more information, visit sipgp.com.
SOURCE Tilt Five
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