Virtual reality startup Absentia raises Rs 1.2 crore

The device-agnostic technology can convert any media or game to virtual reality and simulate it on the company's device

Virtual reality (VR) startup Absentia has raised Rs 1.2 crore in its first seed funding round led by Mumbai-based seed fund Astarc Ventures. The investment round also saw participation from a clutch of investors including 50K Ventures.

Absentia, founded by BITS Pilani-Goa dropouts Shubham Mishra, Vrushali Prasade and Harikrishna Valiyath last year, has developed a VR headmount device (HMD) called Tesseract along with proprietary patent pending algorithms.

"Absentia aims to beat global competition with its novelty. The device-agnostic technology developed by the team can convert any media or game to VR and simulate it on our own HMD - Tesseract," co-founder Mishra said in a statement on Monday

Tesseract can also be used by architects and product designers for 3D views of real estate developments and designs. Its 360-degree vision allows users to watch videos with complete 3D immersion and users can also use the headgear for viewing panoramic pictures in 3D or with 360-degree vision. Moreover, the headset uses technology which is compatible with video games developed using any technology and is also compatible with HDMI dongles like the Chromecast, he added.

"As angel investors, we knew we had to give these three young entrepreneurs a chance to create something fantastic out of India. This is a risk we are ready to take to help young minds like these to come up with products out of India. We need more and more of such innovative products coming out of India which can challenge those created globally," said Salil Musale, executive director of Astarc Ventures.

Tesseract, which offers military-grade head tracking with ultra-low latency and uses a simulated 'static nose' and smart video-rendering techniques to prevent 'simulator sickness', will be available for pre-order soon at www.absentiavr.com, the company said.