Urbanbase, a Seoul-based firm that develops a 3D spatial knowledge platform for inside planning and design, introduced right this moment it has raised $11.1 million (13 billion received) in a Series B+ spherical because it scales up.
This spherical of funding was led by Hanwha Hotel & Resort, which is a subsidiary of South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Corporation.
Urbanbase, based in 2013 by chief government officer and a former architect Jinu Ha, has now raised $20 million (roughly 23 billion received) in whole.
Existing buyers didn’t be a part of this spherical. The firm had raised Series A funding of $1.eight million and a further $1.2 million in 2017 and its first Series B spherical in April 2020, from backers that included South Korea-based Shinsegae Information & Communication, Woomi Construction, SL Investment, KDB Capital, Shinhan Capital, Enlight Ventures, CKD Venture Capital, and Breeze Investment, Ha stated.
The newest funding might be used for enhancing its B2B SaaS, investing in R&D for superior digital actuality (VR), augmented actuality (AR) and 3D instruments, that are thought-about core applied sciences of metaverse that’s its new enterprise Urbanbase plans to enter, in response to Ha. Global metaverse market measurement is projected to extend $280 billion by 2025 from $30.7 billion in 2021, primarily based on Strategy Analytics’ report.
Companies that concentrate on alternatives within the so-called “metaverse” have been rising as a part of a next-generation strategy to constructing viable enterprise fashions in areas like digital and augmented actuality, and all of the {hardware} and software program and new tech which might be being constructed for them. Big tech firms, starting from Facebook, Intel to Microsoft, are focusing on to maneuver within the space. Apple additionally waded into the realm of digital actuality, engaged on growing a high-end VR headset.
Urbanbase additionally plans to improve its house inside software program platform, Urbanbase Studio, that has capabilities to remodel 2D indoor house photographs into 3D shows by way of Urbanbase’s patented algorithm, visualize inside merchandise in augmented actuality and analyze spatial photographs primarily based on the AI know-how.
Urbanbase claims 50,000 month-to-month lively customers with 70,000 registered B2C customers. The firm has about 50 B2B prospects.
“Most of our B2B clients are large conglomerates in South Korea and Japan, for example, LG Electronics, Japan-based Mitsubishi Real Estate Service, Nitori Holdings, Dentsu Group and SoftBank, but we would like to extend our B2B clients base to small, midsized companies and bring more B2C users after closing the Series B+ funding,” Ha talked about.
Urbanbase is searching for an acquisition goal in prop-tech and development know-how sectors, Ha informed TechCrunch. Urbanbase presently focuses on growing the inside instruments for residence buildings as a result of about 70-80 p.c of whole households in South Korea and Japan reside in residences, Ha stated, including that it’ll diversify its portfolio by buying a startup that covers various kinds of residence.
It presently operates the platform in Korean and Japanese, however it should add English language service previous to getting into in Singapore in the long run of 2021, Ha stated.
