Xperiel, the company that has been building predictive gaming apps for sports teams, announced Tuesday that it closed a new $7 million series A funding with participation from the Sacramento Kings to expand beyond sports technology.
Xperiel, which helps companies build augmented reality apps that take advantage of existing technology in brick-and-mortar stores and venues and consumers’ mobile devices to engage them in games and interactive ads, has collaborated with the Kings since 2016. Xperiel’s fan engagement experiences with the Kings include “Call The Shot,” a predictive gaming program that enables fans to predict what will happen during the game and collect points based on wagers. Also, “Photo in the Plaza” enabled fans providing photos on the team’s app to have them displayed on Golden 1 Center video screens upon arrival.
“The enhanced experience at Golden 1 Center extends off the court and into the hands of our guests through their devices,” Kings Chief Technology Officer Ryan Montoya said in a statement. “Xperiel’s advancement in linking next-generation technology with real-time data, an array of sensors and beacons in a device-agnostic platform represents the future of customer engagement and we’re thrilled to be a part of their growth beyond sports.”
“From day one, the Sacramento Kings understood the true impact a mixed reality experience could have on their customer engagement,” Xperiel CEO and co-founder Alex Hertel said in a statement. “Extending our relationship to include investment allows us to continue to grow Xperiel’s offering and bring exciting new ways to engage their guests, while also expanding into new markets.”
The company says it plans to use the Series A to expand its Real World Web (RWW) platform, a proprietary augmented-reality ecosystem that uses a new visual programming language developed by Xperiel’s founders, to expand into other industries, such as healthcare, engineering, retail and real estate.
The round also includes investment from Inuit co-founder Scott Cool, Cyan Banister of Founder Fund and WTI. Xperiel previously raised funding from the Los Angeles Dodgers and Major League Baseball.
The idea behind RWW is that Xperiel’s clients in a wide-range of industries can easily pick-up the visual language to build their own augmented reality and Internet of Things apps, which can be integrated with the technology at their existing brick-and-mortar infrastructures and consumers’ mobile devices.
In other words, Xperiel helps companies “connect the physical and digital worlds and provide mixed-reality experiences for consumers across any OS or mobile device,” Hertel said.
In the past, sports teams have leveraged the sensors, cameras, microphones and fingerprint scanners in fans’ phones, as well as stadium infrastructure such as video boards, to build interactive in-stadium experiences.
Sports applications built over the past few seasons include the New York Jets game I Called It that lets fans wager on the outcome of certain plays in exchange for points, and a virtual T-shirt cannon where fans can catch digital products and exchange them for physical ones.
Companies in other industries can use this technology to build a range of AR and IoT experiences, including immersive and interactive ads, that better appeal to potential customers.
“Today’s consumers are rejecting traditional advertising,” Banister said in a statement. “We believe that Xperiel’s approach of integrating these innovations into existing architecture creates endless opportunities for brands looking to stand out from increasingly sophisticated competition.”