Ultraleap captures $81m in series D funding

Ultraleap, a UK-based mid-air haptics technology developer spun out of University of Bristol, has closed a £60m ($81m) series D round featuring commercialisation firm IP Group.

Financial services firm China Merchants Bank’s CMB International arm also took part in the round alongside internet and gaming group Tencent, Mayfair Equity Partners and British Patient Capital’s Future Fund: Breakthrough vehicle. It has now raised over $164m altogether.

Founded in 2013, Ultraleap has created haptics interface and hand-tracking software able to capture all the subtlety and complexity of natural hand movements for virtual and extended reality systems.

The spinout was originally known as Ultrahaptics, but rebranded following its acquisition of Leap Motion in 2019.

The company recently launched its fifth-generation hand-tracking technology, Gemini, which is available across multiple platforms, camera systems and third-party hardware. It will use the capital to further develop and commercialise its technology for existing and next-generation computing platforms.

Ultraleap closed a $44.8m round in 2018 led by Mayfair Equity Partners with backing from IP Group and electronic product importer Cornes Technology, as well as Hostplus, Woodford Investment and Dolby Family Ventures.

IP Group had previously invested in a $23m series B round for the company in 2017 together with Cornes, Woodford Investment and Dolby Family Ventures, following a $15.6m series A round two years earlier led by Woodford Investment and backed by existing investor IP Group.

– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.