Mountain View-based light-field camera startup Lytro said it has received funding of $40 million, which will help the company to create more products.
On Wednesday, November 20, Lytro, which created of the world's first consumer light-field camera, announced that it has raised additional financing from new investor North Bridge Venture Partners as well as from existing investors like Andreessen Horowitz (which had offloaded some Facebook shares recently), New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Greylock Partners.
"The opportunity to build a new set of creative tools for 21st-century storytelling is monumental and we're excited to embark on the next phase of our journey," said Jason Rosenthal, CEO of Lytro. "This additional funding will help fuel Lytro's continued growth and the expansion of Light Field photography with new products and audiences." Founder Ren Ng added, "We're thrilled to continue our momentum unleashing the full potential of Light Field Photography and living pictures."
Rosenthal also added that the company wants to move into professional photography, motion picture cameras and to also make its existing consumer products thinner, cheaper and lighter.
The original Lytro camera had a starting price tag of $399 and was the first commercially available camera to include light-field photography technology, which was developed by the founder of the company Ren Ng. The camera's lens contains thousands of microlenses and each of them captures a slightly different slice of light. One single captured picture has so much information that its user can adjust the image in various ways after it's been taken.
The reason that the camera allows its user greater manipulation of images, Rosenthal also indicated that the technology has broader uses than a traditional camera. Rosenthal said that Lytro's technology can be helpful for Hollywood filmmakers, medical-device makers or smartphone manufacturers.
Smartphones now usually feature a camera and many smartphone owners prefer using their device to capture images. With the increasing demand of smartphones with high camera capabilities, many market observers believe that the Lytro technology may makes its way to future smartphones as well. Presently, the cost of the Lytro technology is the only factor that may raise concerns amongst smartphone makers.
The recent funding of $40 million may, however, help the company to explore more ground.
