NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has made a strategic investment, through Accenture Ventures, in Forma Vision, a provider of live-streamed, volumetric video technology that enables 3D holographic images of people, objects and environments to be beamed into the metaverse from any office, home or other location.
Until now, the metaverse opportunity has been constrained to enterprise use cases appropriate for avatar-to-avatar interactions. Now, using Forma Vision’s low-cost, live-streaming volumetric video technology, enterprises of any size can teleport people, places and things into their metaverse experience. For example, Accenture and others have conducted executive town-halls, training, and small group meetings using Forma Vision.
“Accenture sees the metaverse as an evolving and expanding continuum of technologies that will increasingly blur the boundary between the physical and the digital and transform the way businesses and consumers interact,” said David Treat, senior managing director and global lead of Accenture’s Metaverse Continuum business group. “We believe Forma Vision’s volumetric video technology will enable more immersive, engaging interactions and help further bridge real and virtual worlds by allowing people, places and things to be more authentically represented in the metaverse.”
In March 2022, Accenture formed the Accenture Metaverse Continuum business group, which combines metaverse-skilled professionals with deep capabilities in customer experience, digital commerce, extended reality, blockchain, digital twins, artificial intelligence and computer vision to help clients design, execute and accelerate their metaverse journeys. Growing consumer and business interest in the metaverse as a creator economy and tool to enhance day-to-day tasks is expected to fuel a $1 trillion commerce opportunity by the end of 2025, according to Accenture findings released in early January 2023.
Adam Kirk, founder and CEO of Forma Vision, said, “Volumetric collaboration is the future of hybrid work. Our mission is to bring truly natural communication to enterprise, to allow everyone to contribute meaningfully independent of location. With Accenture as our partner, we will deliver unparalleled collaboration experiences to a wide range of enterprise customers.”
Forma Vision is the latest company to join Accenture Ventures’ Project Spotlight, an engagement and investment program focused on investing in companies that create or apply disruptive enterprise technologies. In addition to funding, Project Spotlight connects emerging technology startups with the Global 2000 to fill strategic innovation gaps and offers extensive access to Accenture’s domain expertise and enterprise clients, helping startups harness human creativity and deliver on the promise of their technology.
“For enterprise teams, Forma Vision’s holographic meeting platform can enable remote meeting and other experiences in a highly engaging, 3D virtual format,” said Tom Lounibos, managing director, Accenture Ventures. “Volumetric video allows people to show up as their authentic selves in the metaverse. Imagine having your favorite music artist perform in your living room. We believe video holograms can dynamically enhance everything from e-commerce, gaming and other media, sports and entertainment experiences to virtual healthcare, medicine and even product design.”
Terms of the investment were not disclosed.
About Accenture
Accenture is a leading global professional services company that helps the world’s leading businesses, governments and other organizations build their digital core, optimize their operations, accelerate revenue growth and enhance citizen services—creating tangible value at speed and scale. We are a talent and innovation led company with 738,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Technology is at the core of change today, and we are one of the world’s leaders in helping drive that change, with strong ecosystem relationships. We combine our strength in technology with unmatched industry experience, functional expertise and global delivery capability. We are uniquely able to deliver tangible outcomes because of our broad range of services, solutions and assets across Strategy & Consulting, Technology, Operations, Industry X and Accenture Song. These capabilities, together with our culture of shared success and commitment to creating 360° value, enable us to help our clients succeed and build trusted, lasting relationships. We measure our success by the 360° value we create for our clients, each other, our shareholders, partners and communities. Visit us at www.accenture.com.
About Forma Vision
Forma Vision brings face-to-face collaboration to the metaverse. With our real-time volumetric service, remote users meet and work in immersive 3D, just like real-life. Instead of avatars, users look like themselves, making a Forma Vision meeting more authentic and engaging. Our enterprise service operates on today’s commodity hardware and networks, and calls can be viewed on any device. To experience the future of communication with Forma Vision, visit us at www.formavision.io.
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