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IDG Ventures India, the Bangalore-based early stage technology venture capital fund, has made an undisclosed investment in a technology startup incubated by Stanford University and the city-based Indian Institute of Science (IISc). The company - 3D Solid compression Pvt Ltd (3DSoC) - was co-founded by Fritz Prinz (a Professor in Stanford), B Gurumoorthy (a professor in IISc), Krishnan Ramaswami and K K Venkatraman.
3DSoC is in the 3D content creation and visualisation space. It has developed a patented technology called VIS (Virtual Interactive Solid), which is a concise and lightweight 3D representation, comprising of geometry, text, sound, animation, textures and interaction.
The company claims that the concise nature of the representation makes it very attractive for digital transmission over the network. The value proposition lies in its ability to compress models significantly and allow for interaction at the same time. VIS will find applications in the 3D publishing and visualization space across industries such as automotive, aerospace, heavy equipment manufacturing, marine and offshore drilling, and healthcare to create electronic catalogues, manuals and digital mockups. It can also used in the education, media & entertainment industry to create content in the rich Internet applications space both for recreational and training purposes.
"It is our belief that 3D technology adoption forms the next wave of innovation in digital distribution of content. Whether it be 3D GUI's, rich internet applications, a Second Life like platform or global engineering digital supply chains, our investment in 3D Solid compression is well positioned to ride this wave," Sudhir Sethi, Chairman & Managing Director, IDG Ventures India, said in a statement.
The company's customers in India include some major players in the automotive and engineering verticals who see benefits in leveraging 3D product data in both marketing and the MRO side of the business, due to the highly compressed nature of the files, the release adds.
IDG Ventures India's Sethi and investment advisor Hemir Doshi will join the Board of Directors of 3DSoC. This is the fifth investment of IDG Ventures in India. IDG Ventures India, which has a $150 million fund, has invested in companies like Manthan Software Services, Kreeda Games, Connect M Technology Solutions, and iViz.