- Oblong Industries has received a significant investment from Greenspring Associates, the Owings Mills, MD-based firm that focuses on companies in expansion stage, alongside Silicon Valley-based Industry Ventures and Austin-based UTIMCO, the investment arm of the University of Texas. These firms are joined by historical partners Morgan Stanley and Foundry Group, bringing the round of growth funding to a total of $65 million.
- The investment will allow Oblong to accelerate product development, launch innovations faster, and ramp an aggressive strategy of expansion into new territories.
- “Greenspring loves to get behind companies that have shown a genuine ability to produce innovative workplace solutions for the 21st century,” said Jim Lim, managing general partner at Greenspring Associates. “Oblong is the clear leader in Infopresence, the immersive collaboration experience essential for all companies that demand sustainably increased workforce productivity.”
- Oblong, headquartered in Los Angeles, is the developer of the Mezzanine product for visual collaboration and of distinctive data visualization solutions at architectural scale, all based on its g-speak technology. The g-speak software platform enables multi-machine, device-agnostic spatial operating environments offering simultaneous input modalities including gesture and touch. Current customers include NASA, PwC, and IBM, along with many dozens of others in the Fortune 500 and Forbes Global 2000.
- “Our team is passionate about working with visionary companies at growth stage,” said Roland Reynolds, managing director of Industry Ventures. “Oblong is a spectacular example of the kind of tech leader we love to support—its products and UI-led technologies are defining a big part of the professional future.”
- In addition to its customer base of global businesses, Oblong has established a foothold in government, education, and healthcare, demonstrating the sector-agnostic value of immersive spatial computing.
- “We’re excited to be a part of Oblong’s bold vision of the future,” said Susan Chen, UTIMCO’s managing director and MCC, technology and deal legal. “UTIMCO is keenly interested in the kind of first-class innovation that will take our economy, society, and global business productivity into the next generation. We are thrilled to help Oblong accelerate the development and launch of their leading-edge collaboration products.”
- UTIMCO, Industry Ventures, and Greenspring Associates join Morgan Stanley and Foundry Group, who have also participated in the round. As returning investors, both firms see the wide market potential for Oblong’s products and solutions.
- “From the beginning, we’ve stood by the Oblong team’s conviction that immersive collaboration will become a strategic driver of economic value for the world’s most important companies,” said Jamey Sperans, managing director at Morgan Stanley AIP. “This view is now being borne out, commercially and at scale, and we are delighted to support an initiative to build on this vision even more rapidly.”
- “This is a validation of Oblong’s vision and growth potential,” said John Underkoffler, CEO, Oblong Industries. “The future of work is coming fast, and we’re proud to offer the immersive, visually rich, and highly capable tools that enable people at all levels to be as creative, collaborative, and productive in the workplace as success in this century requires.”
