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WayRay

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WayRay
Company typePrivate
IndustryAutomotive
Founded2012; 12 years ago (2012)
Defunct2023
Fatebankrupt
Headquarters
Zürich
,
Switzerland
Number of locations
Moscow, Russia
Key people
Vitaly Ponomarev, Philippe Monnier
ProductsAugmented_reality
Number of employees
0
Websitehttp://wayray.com/

WayRay was a Russian start-up with offices in Switzerland and Russia. It developed holographic AR technologies for connected cars.

With effect of 14 August 2023, the Zurich probate court declared the bankruptcy of the WayRay AG, Switzerland.[1] The company's assets have been officially liquidated since this date.[2]

History

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According to Vitaly Ponomarev, company's founder, the idea of a device that projects navigational information on the windshield of the car came to him after the accident into which he got when he was distracted by the GPS navigator. The concept was gradually supplemented by social network and augmented reality. By December 2011, the idea became a project of a portable collimator to be installed on a car's front panel. Using a thin holographic film on the windshield instead of a mirror system made it possible to reduce the dimensions of the device. In the spring of 2012, the device was presented for the first time.[3]

In October 2013, WayRay took the prize at the Intel Global Challenge, UC Berkeley, California, and the following month got shortlisted as a finalist at Slush, a startup competition in Helsinki, Finland.[4][5]

In November 2017, at the LA Auto Show, WayRay was selected as the grand prize winner of the 2017 Top Ten Automotive Startups Competition.[6][7]

WayRay's achievements have been covered by various media: in 2013, Business Insider magazine listed WayRay among the 11 Hottest Startups in Northern Europe; in 2017, Wired magazine included WayRay in the Top 10 Startups Racing to Remake The Auto Industry.[8][9][10] Later in 2018, VentureBeat named the company one of “7 promising tech startups shaking up the auto industry.”[11]

Investments

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Initial capital of WayRay was 300,000 USD of personal and borrowed funds of the founder, which was aimed at designing electronics and developing a chemical formula of the film, later ordered at DuPont.

In 2017, the Chinese internet giant Alibaba Group led an $18 million Series B round.[12] In September 2018, the company raised another $80 million in Series C round led by Porsche.[13][14][15] As of then, WayRay had a valuation of $500 million.[16]

Developments

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The company had announced several development projects in the field of augmented reality for the automotive industry:

  • Deep Reality Display was supposed to be a new generation of WayRay's True AR HUD where different parts of the virtual image can appear at different distances.[17]
  • Holograktor was supposed to be a ride-sharing concept car from Swiss deep-tech with its True AR HUD. The WayRay Holograktor EV would have run three separate “Real Augmented Reality” holographic displays, with one for each of its three occupants.[18]
  • True AR SDK was an augmented reality development framework for third-party developers which allows building AR apps for cars. These apps would hav ebeen able to run on holographic AR displays and complemented the native AR interface.[19]

In November 2017 WayRay won the grand prize in the Top Ten Automotive Startups Competition at LA Auto Show. In addition to the prize money, the company was granted other perks from companies represented among panel judges. Those perks included access to Microsoft Azure cloud infrastructure, a new Nvidia Drive PX 2 AI computer and access to Elektrobit's software network for automated driving and consulting services from Porsche Consulting.[20]

In January 2018, the CES-2018 company showed off its Navion navigation system for the first time. Also at CES, WayRay demonstrated its development platform True AR SDK, which was created to allow others to build augmented reality apps for automobiles.[19] In February 2018, the company announced a new competition seeking developers for its True SDK Challenge, a competition to create AR applications for cars.[21]

In November 2021 WayRay launched its own Holograktor car to showcase the holographic technology.[22]

Automotive collaborations

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WayRay's business model included both retail sales Navion Navigator and OEM-contracts with automakers on the supply of AR-system. In December 2015, the company announced a partnership agreement with the French provider of telecommunications services, Orange Business Services, under which it would have provided wireless connection and maintenance of WayRay products in the US.[23]

In January 2017, at the CES-2017 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the company announced a strategic partnership with the US automotive electronics manufacturer Harman International Industries and the planned introduction of WayRay technologies into Harman's solutions for automakers. The autonomous concept car Oasis of the Swiss company Rinspeed was presented at the exhibition. It is equipped with the infotainment system with augmented reality developed by WayRay.[24][25][26][27][28]

Banma Technologies, a joint venture between Alibaba Group and Chinese auto concern SAIC Motor, was a WayRay's partner which worked with carmakers on its behalf.[29]

At Startup Autobahn 2018, Europe's largest innovation platform initiated by Daimler AG and Plug and Play, WayRay announced its joint pilot project with the German automobile manufacturer Porsche and took home the People's Choice Award and the prize in the AR/VR category.[30][31][32][33] The company also cooperated with a number of automakers.[19]

References

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  1. ^ "Provisional announcement of bankruptcy Wayray AG (Publication number: KK01-0000032156)". Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce SOGC. 30 August 2023. Retrieved 2024-05-10.
  2. ^ "Bankruptcy publication/call to creditors Wayray AG en liquidation (Publication number: KK02-0000037784)". Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce SOGC. 8 December 2023. Retrieved 2024-05-10.
  3. ^ Allen Lee (2022-07-02). "20 Things You Didn't Know About WayRay" [20 Things You Didn’t Know About WayRay]. Money Inc. Retrieved 2022-07-02.
  4. ^ "BIT Contest announces Global Track nomination winners". East-West Digital News. 2013-08-01. Retrieved 2018-11-20.
  5. ^ "Meet The Winners From Slush, A Massive Startup Competition In Finland". Business Insider. Retrieved 2018-11-20.
  6. ^ "Alibaba Backed WayRay won Grand Prize on AutoMobility LA's Top Ten - VR World". VR World. 2017-11-29. Retrieved 2018-11-20.
  7. ^ "Alibaba-backed augmented reality start-up makes driving look like a video game - CNBC". CNBC. 2017-11-28. Retrieved 2018-11-20.
  8. ^ Megan Rose Dickey (2013-11-22). "The 11 Hottest Startups In Northern Europe". Business Insider. Retrieved 2017-04-23.
  9. ^ Nicholas Tufnell (2014-08-01). "Europe's hottest startups 2014: Moscow". Wired UK. Wired magazine. Retrieved 2017-04-23.
  10. ^ "Meet the Top 10 Startups Racing to Remake the Auto Industry". WIRED. Retrieved 2018-11-20.
  11. ^ "7 promising tech startups shaking up the auto industry". VentureBeat. 2018-02-26. Retrieved 2018-11-20.
  12. ^ Catherine Shu (2017-03-15). "Alibaba invests in WayRay, a maker of augmented-reality dashboards for smart cars" [Alibaba invests in WayRay, a maker of augmented-reality dashboards for smart cars]. Techcrunch. Retrieved 2017-04-23.
  13. ^ "Porsche invests in Swiss start-up WayRay". Porsche. 2018-09-18. Retrieved 2018-10-17.
  14. ^ "Porsche leads $80 million investment in WayRay to bring holographic AR displays to cars". VentureBeat. 2018-09-18. Retrieved 2018-10-17.
  15. ^ "Porsche And Hyundai Are Looking To Add Augmented Reality To Future Models @ Top Speed". Top Speed. Retrieved 2018-10-17.
  16. ^ "WayRay raises $80M at a $500M valuation led by Porsche for its holographic AR display tech". TechCrunch. 18 September 2018. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
  17. ^ "WayRay: What we do". Retrieved 2017-04-23.
  18. ^ "Holographic Breakthrough In The WayRay Holograktor Could Disrupt Car Interior Design". Forbes. 2016-06-02. Retrieved 2017-04-23.
  19. ^ a b c Darrell Etherington (2018-01-09). "WayRay's AR in-car HUD convinced me HUDs can be better". Techcrunch. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
  20. ^ Robert Ferris (2017-11-27). "Alibaba-backed augmented reality start-up makes driving look like a video game". CNBC. Retrieved 2018-01-10.
  21. ^ Peter Graham (2018-02-08). "WayRay Seeks AR Developers For Its True AR SDK Challenge". VR Focus. Retrieved 2018-02-26.
  22. ^ "Holographic Breakthrough in the WayRay Holograktor Could Disrupt Car Interior Design". Forbes.
  23. ^ "WayRay, navigation holographique". Services Mobiles. 2015-12-07. Retrieved 2017-04-23.
  24. ^ Darrin Shewchuk (2017-01-04). "HARMAN and Holographic AR Displays Pioneer WayRay Announce Collaboration for Automotive Market". Harman Newsroom. Retrieved 2017-04-23.
  25. ^ Jennifer Kite-Powell (2016-12-28). "How To Drive A Concept Car With Holographic Navigation". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-04-23.
  26. ^ "Honda Global | May 30, 2018 Overview of Honda Exhibit at CES ASIA 2018". Honda Global. May 30, 2018. Retrieved 2018-10-17.
  27. ^ "Honda Xcelerator". MSN News. Retrieved 2018-10-17.
  28. ^ WayRay (2018-07-20). "WayRay rubs shoulders with Honda Xcelerator at CES Asia 2018". Medium. Retrieved 2018-10-17.
  29. ^ "WayRay announces strategic partnership with Banma Technologies with investment support from Alibaba Group". Sudonull. 2017-03-14. Retrieved 2017-04-23.
  30. ^ "Porsche invests in Swiss start-up WayRay". Porsche Newsroom. Retrieved 2018-11-20.
  31. ^ "WayRay raises $80M at a $500M valuation led by Porsche for its holographic AR display tech". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-11-20.
  32. ^ "Porsche, Hyundai invest in WayRay to make augmented-reality HUDs". Roadshow. 2018-09-18. Retrieved 2018-11-20.
  33. ^ "Porsche's new video game tech". news.com.au. Retrieved 2018-11-20.
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