Belfast-based RETìníZE, a creative tech startup, announced that it has picked up £2 million in seed funding. The investment round was led by Sure Valley Ventures, the founder-led VC firm that invests in high growth software companies.
The investment will drive the next two-year step in its growth journey and the global rollout of Animotive, RETìníZE’s innovative VR SaaS product set to disrupt the 3D animation production pipeline.
Notably, Sure Valley Ventures is focused on investing in disruptive software innovation at the seed stage in sectors such as the Metaverse, Virtual Reality and Web3 decentralised, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity.
Sure Valley Ventures has made an initial investment of £1 million in RETìníZE. This comes as the first investment from its recently announced £95 million UK Software Fund, which included a cornerstone £50 million investment from the British Business Bank through its Enterprise Capital Funds programme.
Recently, Sure Valley Ventures announced its plans to expand its presence in London and Cambridge with an office in Manchester to allow better access for the team to proactively reach out to the creative and innovation clusters in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Also, it plans to invest into 25 software companies from across the UK through its new fund.
Sure Valley Ventures Principal, Isabelle O’Keeffe, said: “We are delighted to support RETìníZE hot on the heels of launching our new software fund, as this innovative company enters an exciting new phase. We recognise that the immersive software sector is poised for exponential growth, and the plans that RETìníZE has for Animotive will position the company at the forefront of this expansion. We will continue to identify new opportunities in Metaverse, AI and Cybersecurity as we deploy our Fund II capital, with a focus on UK companies which are bringing a disruptive innovation to market, like RETìníZE.”
RETìníZE CEO, Phil Morrow, said: “We are thrilled to have Sure Valley on board as our lead investor – they have a deep knowledge of the creative tech sector and what impressed us most was the time they took to really understand and challenge our long-term goals and objectives. This investment will supercharge our growth trajectory and will allow us to take Animotive to the international market.”
RETìníZE: A heads up
Founded in 2019 by father and son team, Phil Morrow and Jack Morrow. Its CEO, Phil Morrow, spent over 30 years in the global Film & TV industry, creating and producing hit shows for the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, ABC and CBS, amongst others.
RETìníZE is one of fastest-growing creative-tech companies in Europe. It is the spin-off of Wild Rover Productions, which was one of Ireland’s leading independent TV producers.
RETìníZE is best known for its award-winning Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and immersive multi-screen experiences. However, the company has been in stealth mode, developing Animotive, its immersive animation production tool in recent years.
Animotive harnesses the latest VR technologies to transform the 3D animation production process. It allows anyone to be an animator.
Some of its interesting services include Cinematic VR, Augmented Reality, Interactive VR and Immersive Installation. Some of its notable clients include BBC, National Geographic, World Health Organisation, Save the Children, BMW, Tourism NI and Seagate.
Having participated in SXSW and showcased its technology. The company creates immersive experiences for major brands, collecting several international awards along the way. Its roots and reputations lie in high-end global film & television.
