Hartmann Capital

Q3 was a busy one for our portfolio companies and founders as they launched products, announced titles, and introduced new features across XR, GenAI, and Gaming. Swipe through to see more ➡️ Neurable, Impact Reality, ShapesXR, Zibra AI, Sinn Studio Inc., TRIPP, Inc., DRESSX, Cookie3, LIV

This week in Generative AI and Gaming 🤖🕹 👇 - Google unveils UNBOUNDED, an interactive infinite game. - Supersonic from Unity launches AI-powered Game Idea Generator. - Canva introduces Dream Lab. - Sana, a new AI model introduced by Nvidia, runs high-quality 4K image generation on consumer-grade hardware. - Apple rolls out Apple Intelligence across iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices. - GitHub expands Copilot integration to Apple's Xcode. - Instagram tests AI-powered 'Expand Your Image' feature for Stories. - Final Cut Pro will integrate the AI-powered 'Transcribe to Caption' feature. - Midjourney debuts a dedicated AI image editor. - Peer launches Virtual Universe platform for AI spatial intelligence. - Perplexity releases a native macOS app for AI-powered search. - Anthropic adds JavaScript data analysis capabilities. - OpenAI hints at next-gen model release by December. - Apple launched Apple Intelligence on iPhone, iPad, and Mac - SAG-AFTRA partners with AI voice company Ethovox. Business and Funding: - Sana secures $55M for AI agent development. - General Catalyst raises massive $8B in new capital. - Sierra raises $175M at a $4.5B valuation. - Sapien closes $8.7M funding round.

While VR traditionally sees a 'summer lull' in usage, 2024 data shows summer actually peaked for game engagement (pre-holiday season) across multiple different VR titles. Makes sense - the core VR gaming demographic (boys 10-18) aligns perfectly with school breaks. Monthly Active User chart courtesy of AEXLAB Jonathan Ovadia Quest developers, how have your trends changed over summer months?

This week in Generative AI and Gaming 🤖🕹 👇 - Anthropic launches Claude 3.5 Sonnet with revolutionary desktop app. - Stability AI unveils Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large and Turbo coming Oct 29. - Runway introduces Act-One for realistic AI character animation. - Canva debuts Dream Lab powered by Leonardo.ai's Phoenix model. - Ideogram launches infinite Canvas for enhanced AI image manipulation. - Microsoft announces upcoming launch of new AI-powered apps. - Genmo releases Mochi 1, an open-source AI video generation platform. - Highlight spins out from Medal as a standalone AI assistant. - xAI opens developers' access to its API. - Bambu Lab introduces an AI-powered 3D model generation tool. - Midjourney plans a web-based AI image editing feature. - Google enhances NotebookLM with audio improvements. - OpenAI releases Windows version of ChatGPT. - Adobe previews AI sound generation and image remixing features. Business and Funding: - CrewAI secures $18M for agentic AI development. - Rabbit raises additional $10M for AI hardware development. - Freeform lands $14M for AI-powered 3D printing factory. - Perplexity seeks massive $500M funding round. - .txt raises $11.9M for programmable language models. - Zerve secures $7.6M for data science and AI platform.

Join us as Felix Hartmann presents our core theses and breaks down the opportunities across GenAI, XR, and the revolution happening in gaming. 🗓 Nov 4 🕐 1PM ET 🔴 Streaming on Linkedin Live RSVP 'Attend' at the LinkedIn event below to tune-in 📩

🔥 This week in XR 🔥 - Meta’s new headset, the Quest 3S, released. The headset is nearly identical in specs to the Quest 3, but comes in at an incredible $299 price point compared to the 3’s $500 - top selling device on Amazon’s Video Games Category - Meta CTO confirmed the cancellation of the Quest Pro 2 high end headset, with reports saying an ultralight MR headset was greenlit for creation - Speculation on Tesla’s Optimus robot demo was controlled by a user in VR - Kluge Interactive Interactive’s new fighting title, FINAL FURY, was featured at Steam Next Fest (great work, Arturo Perez!) 🔥 🔥 🔥

From our Q3 2024 GenAI in Gaming Report: With an overall funding of $2.73 billion across multiple ventures, it's evident that the race to produce the most effective AI co-pilot is on. Access the research and get more insights on the rise of AI co-pilots and how they're altering the way developers code: https://lnkd.in/euvMwR6M

This week in Generative AI and Gaming 🤖🕹 👇 - AI recommended Deadlock's new matchmaking algorithm to Valve: "I found it using ChatGPT." - Krotos released text-prompt driven AI Ambience Generator. - ChatGPT’s ‘canvas’ interface makes it easier to write and code. - Meta previewed a new ‘Movie Gen’ AI video creation tool. - Meta launched the “world’s largest” 3D Model Digital Twin Catalog. - Hugging Face’s new tool lets developers build AI-powered web apps. - Las Vegas rolls out an AI-enabled network powered by Nvidia hardware. - Adobe has a new tool to protect artists’ work from AI. - Google is testing the Gemini button on the Android lock screen for AI functionality. - Google launched video generation in product studio. - Anthropic launched Message Batches API that cost 50% less than standard API calls. - Black Forest Labs released Flux 1.1 Pro and an API. Business and Funding: - Third Dimension AI raised $6.9m (gen. AI 3D world builder). - Clout Kitchen raised $4.45m (League of Legends AI "buddies"). - Distributional raised $19M (automates AI model and app testing.) - Driver raised $8M (simplifying technical documentation). - OpenAI raised $6.6 billion. - poolside raised $500M (AI coding assistants).

Apple's Vision Pro, Meta's Orion, and Snap's Spectacles have been getting most of the headlines recently -- but the landscape of headsets across VR, MR, and AR continues to expand. Check out our research on XR and learn more about our investments in the burgeoning space: https://lnkd.in/ea8MG3Zn

$415 million invested. 100+ AI projects at EA alone. Here's what happened in AI and games in Q3 👇 🎮 Big Players: • EA: 100+ AI projects, new "Imagination to Creation" tool. • Nintendo: Cautious approach, prioritizing IP protection. • Amazon Games: Clarified AI stance after backlash. 💰 Major Investments: • Total: $415.1M raised by AI gaming startups. • Standouts: World Labs ($230M), Volley ($55M), Qodo (formerly CodiumAI) ($40M). Bitmagic Omnic.AI X&Immersion Artificial.Agency Clout Kitchen nunu.ai Reforged Labs (YC W22) FRVR Pentagon Games Campfire (applied AI company) Series Entertainment Crackle Technologies Grand Games Iconic Echo Chunk AI 🔬 Breakthrough Research: • GameNGen Doom: AI simulating playable games. • VIDEOGAMEBUNNY: AI trained on 185,000 images from 413 games. • GPT-4 powered NPCs in Minecraft. • "Zagii": Text-to-game RPG engine (803 games generated). • Sketch2Scene: Doodles to 3D game worlds. • AI for game tutorial improvement. For more, see our first quarterly AI in Gaming Industry Report: https://lnkd.in/e9XAvy3p