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Virtual reality on the Gulf Coast recently received a real-life million-dollar boost.
It comes from Marxent Labs, which raised $1.2 million in venture capital funding in the third quarter. St. Petersburg-based Marxent specializes in augmented and virtual reality.
Augmented reality is the ability to project digital content into a physical space. Marxent couples that with virtual reality and the company says it can fully emerge someone into a digital experience.
Marxent has largely been in the research and development phase since 2011, says CEO Beck Besecker. The company plans to use the new capital to expand its platform, add partners and generally continue to invest in the technology.
“The hook right now with ARVR is largely built around gaming, like playing a game of Halo fully immersed with others,” Besecker tells Coffee Talk. But he says the bigger, less obvious space is in retail and manufacturing.
With augmented reality/virtual reality technology, Marxent can virtualize heavy equipment or large objects. So if you're considering remodeling your kitchen, Besecker says the company can use this technology to place you right in the middle of a virtual duplicate of the newly renovated kitchen.
Augmented reality/virtual reality is the hottest space in technology right now, Besecker says. He plans to capitalize on that and expects Marxent to grow into a $100 million company within four years. Besecker declined to comment on current revenues, but he says the company is profitable and has seen year-over-year growth of at least 100% every year since 2011.
As the company moves forward, the challenge is “how quickly we can scale and finding the key resources we need to grow as much as possible,” Besecker says.
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