Lytro builds on its core light field photography technology to produce cinema-level camera systems and 360-degree 3D capture tools. Its Immerge capture system was re-engineered from a spherical lens array to a planar design for large-scale production use. The company is also developing Lytro Cinema, a large camera intended to replace green-screen workflows by excluding image regions based on measured distance. Lytro has begun on-set testing of Immerge in a production by VR filmmaker Chris Milk. The company previously raised $50M to develop its original consumer camera, and its consumer products (including the Illum) failed commercially. The new funding will be used to advance major R&D projects and to support studios and creators adopting the systems. The firm sees Asia, and China in particular, as an important market for VR and cinematic content over the next five years. Lytro builds a computational photography platform centered on the world’s first consumer Light Field camera, enabling users to refocus photos after capture and change perspective. The camera and platform create interactive “living pictures” that can be endlessly refocused and shared online. Lytro has developed an ecosystem of camera firmware, desktop software, an iOS app and cloud infrastructure to support those capabilities. The company began shipping its consumer Light Field camera in February 2012. Founder and Executive Chairman Dr. Ren Ng—whose Ph.D. research underpins the technology—founded the company in 2006; Jason Rosenthal serves as CEO. The company plans to expand Light Field photography with new products and audiences, supported by additional funding. Lytro is developing a new type of camera that captures the entire light field in a single shot, enabling users to refocus photos after the fact, change orientation, and display 3D-like images. The technology builds on mid-1990s Stanford light-field experiments that used 100 cameras; Lytro’s innovation is making the approach small enough to fit in a pocket. Ren Ng is the company’s founder and CEO. The company indicated devices would arrive "sometime this year," but did not provide a firm ship date. Pricing remains uncertain, with Ng offering a very broad ballpark between north of $1 and less than $10,000. Lytro has raised $50 million in venture funding from NEA, K9 Ventures, Greylock Partners and Andreessen Horowitz. The article flags risks around achieving a consumer-friendly price point and delivering the simple user experience the company claims.

Total raised

$150M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series D

Latest activity

Feb 2017