{"id":928,"date":"2021-03-23T10:31:20","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T10:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/?p=928"},"modified":"2021-04-28T10:32:58","modified_gmt":"2021-04-28T09:32:58","slug":"blippar-closes-5-million-pre-series-a-funding-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/blippar-closes-5-million-pre-series-a-funding-round\/","title":{"rendered":"Blippar closes $5 million pre-Series A funding round"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.blippar.com\/\">Blippar<\/a>, the leading Augmented Reality (AR) technology company, today announced it has closed a $5 million funding round.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The pre-Series A round was co-led by Chroma Ventures, Chris van der Kuyl and Paddy Burns\u2019 investment arm, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/\"> West Coast Capital<\/a>; the private equity arm of Scottish entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter and family. Canadian entrepreneur Anthony Lacavera also contributed to the round through his<a href=\"https:\/\/www.globalive.com\/\"> Globalive Capital<\/a> investment firm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new investment reinforces Blippar\u2019s position as the global leader in AR and will be used to further develop the company\u2019s industry-leading technology and accelerate its growth in key markets including the US, Europe and Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Faisal Galaria, CEO of Blippar, commented: \u201cWe are very excited to have attracted investors of this calibre to Blippar. Not only is this a solid vote of confidence in Blippar\u2019s technology from some of the most highly regarded industry veterans and business minds, but it also demonstrates sustained validation of the UK tech sector post-Brexit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c2020 was a transformative year for Blippar with a 200% increase in revenue quarter on quarter, continued strengthening of the senior leadership team, and delivery of cutting-edge AR campaigns for major global brands including OnePlus, Kellogg\u2019s and Dr Pepper. We have leveraged our 10 years of investment, provenance, and technology leadership in the AR space to come back leaner, more focussed and better than ever before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chroma Ventures, West Coast Capital, and Globalive Capital join existing shareholder<a href=\"https:\/\/candyventures.lu\/\"> Candy Ventures<\/a>; the multi-stage investment firm founded by British entrepreneur Nick Candy.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gaming pioneers Chris van der Kuyl and Paddy Burns of 4J Studios are best known for developing Minecraft for Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo games consoles.&nbsp; Over the last 25 years, Chris\u2019 success, profile and contribution in building technology, media and entertainment businesses has been prolific, and Paddy has been at the heart of the games industry for over 25 years. This week, the two entrepreneurs launched Chroma Ventures, a new investment arm for their diverse and growing portfolio of investments, to channel flexible capital into a range of early-stage and established businesses with high-growth potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chris Van Der Kuyl of Chroma Ventures commented: \u201cThe immersive nature of AR makes it one of the most important use cases for the gaming industry. Blippar\u2019s AR technology is by far the most advanced and innovative that I\u2019ve seen in years and there is huge potential for AR to power the ultimate gaming experience of the future. We look forward to being part of the Blippar journey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>West Coast Capital holds a number of major investments in property, e-commerce and data analytics, and was an early investor in The Hut Group. Sir Tom Hunter commented: \u201cBlippar has demonstrated strong progress with the turnaround plan put in place by Faisal and the team, and the business is now well placed to maximise the opportunities presented by the growing AR ecosystem hence we are delighted to invest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anthony Lacavera is credited with changing the face of Canada\u2019s communications technology landscape. He was the founder of WIND; one of Canada\u2019s four mobile operators, and other leading telecoms businesses including Yak and OneConnect. He is the founder and Chairman of Globalive \u2013 a global investment firm that has raised over CAD$2 billion in the telecommunications industry. Over the past 15 years, Globalive Capital has invested in over 100 companies in the tech, media and telecoms industries and has 45 companies currently in its venture portfolio.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Anthony Lacavera commented: \u201cWe partner, invest and build companies that are committed to innovating and developing technology to improve and change industries. Blippar is exactly the kind of business we get excited about. With the AR tech stack now available on over 4 billion mobile phones and with 5G rolling out globally, the timing for AR is now. Blippar is incredibly well positioned to lead the transition from a 2D to an immersive 3D world&nbsp; leveraging its experience in Computer Vision, Machine Learning, AI in addition to Augmented Reality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The UK Government also secured a minority equity stake in Blippar in 2020 through the Future Fund match funding scheme, further validating Blippar\u2019s status as a leading innovative UK technology company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Blippar, the leading Augmented Reality (AR) technology company, today announced it has closed a $5 million funding round.&nbsp;&nbsp; The pre-Series A round was co-led by Chroma Ventures, Chris van der&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Blippar closes $5 million pre-Series A funding round - West Coast Capital<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/blippar-closes-5-million-pre-series-a-funding-round\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blippar closes $5 million pre-Series A funding round - West Coast Capital\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Blippar, the leading Augmented Reality (AR) technology company, today announced it has closed a $5 million funding round.&nbsp;&nbsp; The pre-Series A round was co-led by Chroma Ventures, Chris van der...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/blippar-closes-5-million-pre-series-a-funding-round\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"West Coast Capital\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-23T10:31:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-04-28T09:32:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Parachute\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Parachute\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/blippar-closes-5-million-pre-series-a-funding-round\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/blippar-closes-5-million-pre-series-a-funding-round\/\",\"name\":\"Blippar closes $5 million pre-Series A funding round - West Coast Capital\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-23T10:31:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-04-28T09:32:58+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/ebd3c53fe83ae3443dac4ceaa57c6595\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/blippar-closes-5-million-pre-series-a-funding-round\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/blippar-closes-5-million-pre-series-a-funding-round\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/blippar-closes-5-million-pre-series-a-funding-round\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Blippar closes $5 million pre-Series A funding round\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"West Coast Capital\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/ebd3c53fe83ae3443dac4ceaa57c6595\",\"name\":\"Parachute\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5aa0c5408cce0283b52e5197af7971bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5aa0c5408cce0283b52e5197af7971bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Parachute\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/author\/parachute\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Blippar closes $5 million pre-Series A funding round - West Coast Capital","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/blippar-closes-5-million-pre-series-a-funding-round\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Blippar closes $5 million pre-Series A funding round - West Coast Capital","og_description":"Blippar, the leading Augmented Reality (AR) technology company, today announced it has closed a $5 million funding round.&nbsp;&nbsp; The pre-Series A round was co-led by Chroma Ventures, Chris van der...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/blippar-closes-5-million-pre-series-a-funding-round\/","og_site_name":"West Coast Capital","article_published_time":"2021-03-23T10:31:20+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-04-28T09:32:58+00:00","author":"Parachute","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Parachute","Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/blippar-closes-5-million-pre-series-a-funding-round\/","url":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/blippar-closes-5-million-pre-series-a-funding-round\/","name":"Blippar closes $5 million pre-Series A funding round - West Coast Capital","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/#website"},"datePublished":"2021-03-23T10:31:20+00:00","dateModified":"2021-04-28T09:32:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/ebd3c53fe83ae3443dac4ceaa57c6595"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/blippar-closes-5-million-pre-series-a-funding-round\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/blippar-closes-5-million-pre-series-a-funding-round\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/blippar-closes-5-million-pre-series-a-funding-round\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Blippar closes $5 million pre-Series A funding round"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/","name":"West Coast Capital","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/ebd3c53fe83ae3443dac4ceaa57c6595","name":"Parachute","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5aa0c5408cce0283b52e5197af7971bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5aa0c5408cce0283b52e5197af7971bb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Parachute"},"url":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/author\/parachute\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=928"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":931,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions\/931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastcapital.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}