New Zealand-based avatar developer Soul Machines, a University of Auckland spinout, closed a $7.5m series A round on Tuesday and appointed investor Phil Chen of Horizons Ventures as executive chairman.
The round was led by Horizons Ventures, entrepreneur Li Ka-shing’s family office, and included Iconiq Capital, a wealth manager to Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs such as social media giant Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg.
Soul Machines develops intelligent, emotionally responsive computer-generated avatars used on artificial intelligence (AI) platforms.
The spinout was built on the technology behind interactive animated virtual infant Baby X, the first avatar created by the company’s founder and chief executive Mark Sagar and his engineering research team at the University of Auckland.
Auckland UniServices, the university’s commercial research and tech transfer office, has reassigned ownership of all intellectual property and associated research to Soul Machines in exchange for a shareholding of undisclosed size.
The investment from Horizons Ventures and Iconiq will enable Soul Machines to continue its work developing human-like avatars for AI systems. Soul Machines announced two appointments alongside the funding disclosure.
Phil Chen, who is joining Soul Machines as executive chairman, is the founder of Vive, the virtual reality (VR) headset arm of smartphone and VR technology provider HTC Corporation.
Greg Cross, a New Zealand-based tech entrepreneur with 20 years of experience building technology companies in Asia Pacific and North America, is joining Soul Machines as chief business officer. Cross’s role will be to launch the company and accelerate the commercialisation process.
– Image of Baby X v 3.0 courtesy of the Laboratory for Animate Technologies at the University of Auckland.
