Last month Jaunt announced it was shuttering its cinematic VR division in a critical refocusing of their core mission towards augmented reality, which brought with it lay-offs to a significant portion of their staff. Now, a Venture Beat report maintains Jaunt is looking for a buyer in hopes of alleviating some of the financial strain on the company.

Citing a source familiar with the matter, Venture Beat’s reports that one of the bidders is Spinview Global, a platform created for brands and companies looking to host their own VR and 360 content. Spinview, a London and Stockholm-based company, recently acquired VR communications app Agority.

According to the report, the company is in talks with multiple parties looking to acquire Jaunt’s IP.

Image courtesy Jaunt

Founded in 2013, and exiting out of stealth in 2014, Jaunt previously focused on producing high-quality 360 video in the hundreds, as well as a professional-grade 360 camera dubbed Jaunt One (formerly NEO).

Jaunt said back in October that they’ll be refocusing efforts on further developing technologies that allow for the scaled creation of AR content. This came shortly after the company acquired Personify’s ‘Teleporter’ volumetric video streaming tech and the engineers behind it.

The lay-offs haven’t effected Jaunt China, its Shanghai-based joint venture with Shanghai Media Group and China Media Capital, although at the time we were left wondering whether the bulk of their IP shifted would be shifted to the Shanghai-based branch.

Up until now, Jaunt has secured over $100 million from companies such as Disney, Sky, and Axel Springer, with its latest funding round in 2015 garnering the company $65 million.

Newsletter graphic

This article may contain affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product we may receive a small commission which helps support the publication. More information.


Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 3,500 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Mateusz Pawluczuk

    Mega-startups like Jaunt ($100M in funding) or NextVR (total of $115.5M) will have a hard time justifying such evaluation and finding sources of revenue that match even 1% of what they raised. Meanwhile grassroot startups like Amaze or Gala VIP are making good progress quality and content-wise. Just bought Redway Manor and so far I’m impressed :)

    • Panoaction .

      Agree with you too.

  • sfmike

    Sad news but not surprising. They will not make back their over the top investors money back in AR either and will soon be out of business. Let us hope VR can survive.

    • Panoaction .

      Agree

  • Panoaction .

    I tried to speak with Jaunt in 2014/2015 and they were so ego driven it was practically impossible to break past their ignorance. It was clear that their rookie status would lead them into trouble and their investors are crying now. Its like a bad deja vu of the late 90’s and companies like IPIX. I doubt Jaunt will make it good in AR as they miss the core success algorithm and I doubt they will find it now! There is too much other great AR already beyond their reach.

  • JesuSaveSouls
    • jj

      that game sucks