Meta View is a newly formed startup that’s looking to take up where Meta Company left off, the creators behind the Meta 2 AR headset. Meta View today announced the acquisition of Meta Company assets, and are bringing Jay Wright, former Qualcomm executive and Vuforia President, to the position of CEO.

Wright is tasked with charting the wholly new and unaffiliated company “on a new course,” although it’s not clear at this time exactly what direction the company will go, be it a strictly enterprise route, or to bring more accessible hardware to consumers. Meta View is headquartered in its San Mateo office, but will also maintain offices in San Diego and Tel-Aviv.

Meta Company’s last product was the Meta 2, a tethered AR headset that launched in 2017 for $950.

Meta View says in a press statement that it will continue to support current owners of Meta 2 devices, but will not offer the Meta 2 for sale.

Image courtesy Meta

Meta Company fell into financial ruin late last year after furloughing a majority of its talent due to a crackdown on China-based funding. The company then declared insolvency in January, citing its inability to settle litigation in a patent infringement case. At the time, former CEO and founder Meron Gribetz said he was “somewhat encouraged” by the sale of the company’s IP, and that he felt “like it’s a good home for the Meta assets, and that it could provide a future for them.”

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Despite the industry stumbling block, Meta View CEO Jay Wright thinks the potential for AR is still admittedly “intoxicating.”

“It has fostered a highly competitive and dynamic landscape and I’ve had a front row seat for more than a decade,” Wright says. “This experience and insight has equipped me to identify an opportunity for a different approach, and I couldn’t be more excited to build a new company, a new product, and a world-class team to drive it forward.”

At Qualcomm, Wright led the Vuforia team in the creation of its AR SDK, eventually garnering more than 450,000 AR developers and 50,000 applications in the App Store and Google Play.

Meta View is backed by Olive Tree Ventures and BNSG Captial, and acquired the intellectual property assets of Meta Company from its lender.

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Scott Hayden
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.
  • JesuSaveSouls

    I believe these guys can make a comeback and really become the leaders in ar.

  • Yoshi Kato

    I think the thing that stands out for me is the lawsuit made by Genedics against them. As far as I can tell, Genedics is just a patent troll company with no physical products planned.

    I really think it’s time to rethink the patent system here in the US and around the world. We’re in a situation were truly innovative startups can’t take off because of the insane amount of money needed for litigation.

    • jj

      agreed, while at the same time we have world patents and the chinese just dont care and steal. so its a balance that needs to be there but i agree, it needs to be adjusted.

    • Amen to that… but I doubt that this will happen… too many people are earning from this

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  • Hivemind9000

    I think new leadership is good and may give them a chance to succeed. I had ordered one of these prior to release (Meta 2) but cancelled before delivery based on tracking/stability issues that were noted for a long period of time (in previews), but seemingly ignored by Meta. Never checked back to see where they were at with improving the headset as I lost faith in their willingness/ability to build a quality product.

  • Marc Holmes

    Meta 2 tracking was a mess so having a tracking expert will make headset way better.

    • oompah

      add inside out

      • Jack H

        It was inside-out tracking as far as I remember.

  • oompah

    See how good is being killed becuz of China connection

  • I wonder what this will mean for the company