The Israeli startup TetaVi announced today (Tuesday) the completion of a funding round on top of changing its name to Yoom. The company announced they raised $15 million from some very interesting names, including Jimmy Iovine who, together with Dr. Dre, founded Beats and Interscope–one of the biggest record labels in the world; Maverick Carter, the business manager of NBA star LeBron James; Finneas O'Connell - Billie Eilish's brother and music producer; and Justin Lubliner, the manager of Darkroom Records, which Eilish signed with. Existing investors in the company also participated in the round, including Insight Partners.

Bet on the Metaverse

Yoom (formerly TetaVi) has developed a comprehensive camera system, which knows how to capture and broadcast live, high-quality volumetric video. The company's technology can produce figures/ characters, record videos, and even produce live holograms – and they do it all with the help of a mobile system. That means no need for a green screen or studio, yet the outcomes are still very high quality. To be able to achieve this, the company's system is based on between 4 and 8 depth cameras, computer vision algorithms, and artificial intelligence.

The technology allows the viewer to move freely within the scene – just like in a computer game – and it can be integrated into television content such as sports games, apps, and mobile games as well as augmented and virtual reality glasses. In keeping with the spirit of the times, Yoom says that they are targeting their product, among other things, for the Web3 and Metaverse worlds.

“There are some very cool projects being worked on right now that I can't talk about yet. But not long ago we released a collaboration with the LA Kings hockey team. We set up our studio right on the ice, filmed the hockey players with volumetric video and moved them into the Metaverse," says Yoom CEO Gilad Talmon in a conversation with Geektime. According to him, the advantage of volumetric video, beyond the ease and quality of photography, videography, and production that their technology and tools allow, is the creation of photorealistic content that is adapted to a 3D creation.

Talmon added that "This is especially important for experiences that look for realism such as 'digital twin' experiences, content that is meant to convey an accurate range of facial expressions and emotions, or content that puts a real person at the center such as an actor or singer used to accurately convey a three-dimensional digital experience."

In the past, you said that the world is marching towards the Metaverse and the worlds of 3D– that it is a matter of 5-10 years. But we see that Facebook invests billions in Metaverse, without gaining users. Microsoft is also not really breaking ground with the HoloLens and has been forced to cooperate with Meta. Could it be that the entire Metaverse is a hype? Do you feel this way?

"It really depends on how you define Metaverse, because while the adoption of devices that sit on the eyes is still behind (and as mentioned it will take a good amount of years before they are powerful and cheap enough to replace mobile phones), the entry of more and more creators, singers, movies, and sports leagues, into immersive-gaming worlds (from Fortnite to Sandbox to Roblox) is growing all the time. We see it in the number of requests we’ve gotten from producers in the world of music and the growing interest among sports leagues around the world. There is a growing interest in being able to communicate directly with the audience through all those game/virtual worlds.”