Daqri

Last updated
DAQRI
Type of businessPrivate
Dissolved 2019
Headquarters Los Angeles, California
Founder(s) Brian Mullins
Gaia Dempsey [1]
CEORoy Ashok [2]
Key peopleRoy Ashok
Chris Kaufield
Daniel Wagner
Nalin Senthamil
Paul Sweeney
Employees140
URL daqri.com
Launched2010 (2010)

DAQRI was an American augmented reality company headquartered in Los Angeles, CA. [3] [4] [5]

Contents

As of September 13, 2019, the company has been reported to have gone out of business. [6] [7]

The company's primary product was an augmented reality wearable technology product, DAQRI Smart Glasses, designed for the industrial industry. [8] DAQRI's earlier Smart Helmet product was the subject of many industry application studies. [9]

History

2010

DAQRI was founded.

2011

DAQRI entered the market in February 2011 by releasing an augmented reality publishing platform designed to superimpose an image or video over a smartphone's camera after scanning a QR code. [10]

2012

Daqri created content and applications for 4D augmented reality technology for entertainment, education and industrial companies. [11] [4] [12]

2013

In June 2013, Daqri raised a $15 million Series A led by Tarsadia Investments. [13] [14] Atom Factory CEO Troy Carter, Ashton Kutcher, and D.A. Wallach joined the company's advisory board. [11] [13] [15] As of July 2017, total Daqri financing was reported at $275 million, led by Tarsadia Investments. [16]

2014

In 2014, Daqri expanded its business model into wearable tech hardware and began development on an augmented reality Smart Helmet, an Android-powered hard hat designed for the industrial and construction industries. [17] Daqri Smart Helmet contains a Sixth Gen Intel Core m7 processor chip and an array of cameras and sensors, [18] [19] and is used to create augmented reality for the industrial worker, including visual instructions, real time alerts, and 3D mapping. [20] [21]

2015

In February 2015, Daqri acquired Melon, an EEG-tracking headband company headquartered in Venice, Los Angeles, for an undisclosed sum. [22] [23] [24] In May 2015, Daqri acquired ARToolworks, one of the earliest augmented reality companies on the market, notable for the open-source ARToolKit libraries. [25] In June that year, Daqri opened a European headquarters and development center in Dublin, Ireland. [26] [27]

2016

The Smart Helmet was eventually unveiled at CES 2016 as part of Intel's keynote. [28] In March 2016, Daqri acquired 1066 Labs, a leading head-mounted display manufacturer focused on serving enterprise clients with augmented reality solutions, [29] as well as U.K.-based Two Trees Photonics, a holographic technology company. In June, Daqri was listed on CNBC's Disruptor 50 companies for 2016. [30] Later that year, another European office was established in Vienna, Austria.

2017

In January 2017, Daqri released a new form factor of augmented reality Smart Glasses. [31] As of July 2017, total Daqri financing was reported at $275 million, led by Tarsadia Investments. [16] After reported layoffs of nearly a quarter of the staff, on October 10, 2017, DAQRI co-founder and chief executive officer Brian Mullins stepped down and was replaced with chief product officer Roy Ashok. [32] [33] Two months later, co-founder Gaia Dempsey publicly announced she was leaving the company as well. [34] As 2017 came to a close, Roy Ashok was quoted that Daqri Smart Helmet would no longer be a focus for Daqri and that the newly launched glasses would be the company's hardware offering moving forward: "The Glasses are much more appealing — in form factor and price point —but definitely for use in a more horizontal fashion, the glasses are a good fit. Nothing has surprised thus far. Everything has been consistent with our understanding of the space. Bear in mind, we’ve been working with many customers through the helmet programs, so they’ve already finished their innovation projects and now they’re looking at how to roll this out within their organization. You have to be careful about how you roll these out. The last thing you want is some bad experience for a customer, especially at this point." [35]

2018

On March 7, 2018, Daqri announced Worksense, a new suite of augmented reality productivity applications as part of its push to increase adoption of its AR smart glasses. [36]

2019

On September 9, 2019, Daqri announced via email that it was pursuing an asset sale and was shutting down its cloud and smart-glasses hardware platforms by the end of September. According to former employees and sources close to Daqri, the company shuttered its HQ, laid off many of its employees and was selling off assets ahead of a shutdown. [37]

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References

  1. ↑ "The future of work is augmented reality paired with next-gen wearables". siliconrepublic.com. 13 Aug 2015.
  2. ↑ "Former Qualcomm Exec Roy Ashok Signals Shift to Scaling the Business". daqri. 10 Oct 2017. Archived from the original on 14 December 2017. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  3. ↑ "Choose Your Reality: Virtual, Augmented or Mixed". recode.net. 27 Jul 2015.
  4. 1 2 "4D: A Next Generation Of Brand Engagement And Play". Forbes.com. 27 Nov 2013.
  5. ↑ "Tech scene takes hold in revitalized downtown L.A." latimes.com. 7 Mar 2015.
  6. ↑ Robertson, Adi (2019-09-13). "Augmented reality headset company Daqri is reportedly shutting down". The Verge. Retrieved 2019-11-19.
  7. ↑ "Another high-flying, heavily funded AR headset startup is shutting down". TechCrunch. 13 September 2019. Retrieved 2019-11-19.
  8. ↑ "A RoboCop Hard Hat For Industrial Workers". fastcoexist.com. 8 Oct 2014.
  9. ↑ "IoT ONE DAQRI Case Study". IoTONE.com.
  10. ↑ "Daqri connects QR codes to augmented reality". cnet.com. 23 Feb 2011.
  11. 1 2 "Augmented Reality: Daqri". wired.com. 5 May 2013.
  12. ↑ "Thinking About the Next Revolution". The New York Times . 4 Sep 2013.
  13. 1 2 "Augmented Reality Startup Daqri Raises $15M More, Troy Carter Joins Advisory Board". techcrunch.com. 4 Jun 2013.
  14. ↑ "DAQRI raises $15M to develop its augmented reality platform, will support Google Glass at launch". thenextweb.com. 4 Jun 2013.
  15. ↑ "Augmented Reality: Daqri unveils 4d Smart Helmet for industrial workforce".
  16. 1 2 "Siemens Expands Testing of Augmented-Reality Helmet". blogs.wsj.com/. 31 Jul 2017.
  17. ↑ "The Hardhat Of The Future Uses Google Glass-Like Technology, And It's Ready To Roll Now". businessinsider.com. 8 Sep 2014. Archived from the original on 18 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  18. ↑ "Android-powered smart hard hat comes with augmented reality features". engadget.com. 7 Sep 2014.
  19. ↑ "Intel shows helmet that gives you X-ray vision". cnet.com. 5 Jan 2016.
  20. ↑ "Daqri Smart Helmet: Augmented Reality for the Workplace". bloomberg.com. 26 Jun 2015.
  21. ↑ "Augmented Reality Experts Unveil Hardhat 2.0". wsj.com. 4 Sep 2014.
  22. ↑ "A 'Fitbit' for the brain tries to improve your focus". usatoday.com.
  23. ↑ "Daqri Has Acquired an EEG Headband Company to Integrate Their Tech into an Industrial Augmented Reality Helmet". 19 February 2015.
  24. ↑ "Daqri Buys Smart Headband Maker Melon". labusinessjournal.com. 13 May 2015.
  25. ↑ "DAQRI Acquires AR Pioneer ARToolworks". techcrunch.com. 19 Feb 2015.
  26. ↑ "DAQRI OPENS EUROPEAN HEADQUARTERS IN DUBLIN".
  27. ↑ "Augmented Reality Gets Real In Dublin". Archived from the original on 2015-09-06. Retrieved 2015-10-17.
  28. ↑ "Intel steals the show at CES 2016 with an inspired, futuristic keynote". 6 Jan 2016.
  29. ↑ "Daqri acquires 1066 Labs to power its augmented reality smart helmet". March 2016.
  30. ↑ "DAQRI: Augmented reality on the shopfloor". CNBC . 7 Jun 2016.
  31. ↑ "Daqri Smart Glasses are designed for your boss at your future factory". 25 Oct 2016.
  32. ↑ "An augmented reality company that raised over $130 million is laying off staff worldwide". Business Insider. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  33. ↑ "DAQRI Focused on Growth as It Promotes Former Qualcomm Exec to CEO". WonderHowTo. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  34. ↑ Dempsey, Gaia (2017-12-02). "DAQRI: Reflections on the Beginning". Gaia Dempsey. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  35. ↑ "New DAQRI Boss Brings AR Bonafides, Perspective". IndustryWeek. 2017-12-08. Retrieved 2018-05-30.
  36. ↑ "Daqri Worksense lets workers tag and scan their environments in AR". VentureBeat. 2018-03-07. Retrieved 2018-05-14.
  37. ↑ "DAQRI: Another high-flying, heavily funded AR headset startup is shutting down". Tech Crunch. 2019-09-12. Retrieved 2019-09-13.
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