FROM science fiction TO REAL SOLUTIONS, OBLONg RECEIVES INVESTMENTS
FROM MORGAN STANLEY AIP, ge-nrg energy-conocophillips VENTURE AND FOUNDRY GROUP
LOS ANGELES, March 8, 2012 – Oblong Industries, the company that created the computing environments
depicted in the film Minority Report,
has announced that it is partnering with two new funders for its Series B
capital raise: Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners, and Energy
Technology Ventures — a GE-NRG Energy-ConocoPhillips venture. The Foundry Group,
already an Oblong investor, led the new funding round.
Oblong and its partners view this
latest investment round as an opportunity to fuel growth, further extend the
company’s technology leadership position, and deliver solutions to a broader
market.
Oblong’s g-speak™ spatial
operating system provides data visualization, analytics, and integration
capabilities across multiple computers, screens, and applications. The g-speak
environment supports many different kinds of computing and input devices, from
desktops and laptops to mobile devices, from large-screen “mission control”
centers to walk-up information kiosks. Oblong pioneered the development of
gestural interfaces and continues to ship the world’s most scalable and
accurate system for interactive hand and object tracking.
Oblong’s Mezzanine™ product,
built on the g-speak platform, introduces next-generation, real-time
collaboration with integrated telepresence. Mezzanine
allows any user on an enterprise network to share content and applications with
any colleague, any where in the world, dynamically and interactively.
Video of Oblong’s products is
available at the company’s website: http://www.oblong.com/.
"We believe Oblong's spatial
operating system is revolutionizing the way people interact with their
computers," said Jamey Sperans, Managing
Director, Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment
Partners. "We are delighted to be partnering with Oblong's team of
visionaries in pursuing the multiple market opportunities for this
transformative technology."
Oblong’s technology research began
over two decades ago at the MIT Media Lab. Today, the team is comprised of
developers and engineers formerly with companies including Apple, Google,
Pixar, Microsoft, Accenture and Walt Disney Imagineering.
Kwindla Hultman Kramer, Oblong’s Chief Executive
Officer, commented, “We founded Oblong because we want to make computers
better, smarter, and easier to use. We're proud of the multi-user,
multi-screen, multi-device spatial operating environment we're supplying to
partners like Boeing, SAP, and GE Digital Energy. And we look forward to taking
that platform to broader markets in 2012.”
“We seek to invest in brilliant
innovations that solve real problems with a talented team that can execute. We
found that in Oblong. Their groundbreaking technology has the potential to
fundamentally change how we interact with and act on data,” said Kevin
Skillern, GE Energy Financial Services’ Managing Director of venture capital
and representative of Energy Technology Ventures.
Oblong will use the new
investment dollars to scale product commercialization and custom solutions
development. Partners are critical to this scaling, and GE recently announced
that Oblong’s technology has been licensed by GE Digital Energy for use in new
Smart Grid analytics software. The product will enable utilities to use
integrated digital tools and data sources designed to make decisions, both in
infrastructure planning and real-time operations.
GE’s partnership with Oblong
was conducted through GE’s ecomagination Accelerator program. The $20
million ecomagination Accelerator program, a spin-off from the $200 million ecomagination challenge, is designed to scale offerings of
leading start-up companies through GE as a global growth platform. In addition
to equity investments, GE funds commercial pilots through the Accelerator
program in key growth markets like the smart grid.
Financial details on the Series B
financing round in Oblong Industries were not disclosed.
About Oblong Industries
Oblong
Industries’ innovative technologies and ideas are changing the way people work,
play, and communicate. Oblong’s technology was the basis for the computers
depicted in the film Minority Report®
and has roots in more than two decades of research at the MIT Media Lab. Oblong’s
products, including the g-speak™ spatial operating system and the Mezzanine™
collaboration appliance, define the next generation of multi-user,
multi-screen, multi-device computing.
Oblong
is headquartered in Los Angeles and supplies g-speak and Mezzanine™ systems to Fortune
50 enterprise customers, reseller partners, and academic and research
institutions.
About Energy Technology Ventures
Energy Technology Ventures is a joint
venture involving GE (NYSE: GE), NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG), and ConocoPhillips
(NYSE: COP) focused on the development of next-generation energy technologies.
Bringing together three market-leading companies with a wide range of deep
technical and financial expertise, relationships, services and products, the
joint venture invests in, and offers commercial collaboration opportunities to,
venture- and growth-stage energy technology companies in the renewable power
generation, smart grid, energy efficiency, oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear
energy, emission controls, water and biofuels sectors, primarily in North
America, Europe and Israel. For more information, visit www.energytechnologyventures.com.
About
Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners
Morgan
Stanley Alternative Investment Partners (AIP), part of Morgan Stanley
Investment Management, provides innovative alternative investment solutions
across hedge funds, private equity, real estate and
diversified alternatives. AIP's dedicated investment
teams draw on a deep understanding of alternative investment strategies formed
over decades of investment experience and apply this expertise and insight to
bring thoughtful, opportunistic and innovative solutions to clients.
About
Foundry Group
Foundry Group is a venture
capital firm focused on making investments in early-stage information
technology, Internet and software startups. Our passion is working alongside
entrepreneurs to give birth to new technologies and to build those technologies
into industry-leading companies. We’re centrally located in Boulder, CO, but we
invest in companies across North America.
Our current venture fund of $225m
was launched in October 2010 and is managed by our four managing
directors. Collectively, we have over five decades of experience in venture
capital investing. During that time we have invested in over 100 companies as
institutional investors and over 50 companies as angel investors. Additionally,
we have over three decades of entrepreneurial experience in founding and
working in senior operating roles inside technology startups.
Contact:
Vu Chung
CJP Communications for Energy Technology
Ventures
212.279.3115 ext. 205