Belfast animation company Retinize has secured £2 million of seed investment from a group of investors including two Holywood producers.
The Sure Valley Ventures UK Software Technology Fund led the seed investment round with £1 million while a number of other investors made up the remainder, including Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri, the multi Emmy award-winning producers behind the CBS hit show ‘the Amazing Race’.
Retinize, which works on high end film and television production, said the funding will boost its growth plans and help it rollout its animation software product Animotive globally. It uses virtual reality to improve the 3D animation production process
The firm is run by father and son team Phil and Jack Morrow who have vast experience in virtual and augmented reality and have worked one a number of high profile productions. It was spun out of independent production company Wild Rover Productions and has been funded since 2019 by Northern Ireland start-up fund Techstart Ventures, which is also part of the latest round of funding.
Other funders include VGC Partners, Clarendon/Co-fund NI, Lonely Horse Investments and Ben Morrow, Senior Product Manager of Adobe Aero, Adobe’s AR creation tool.
Retineze’s CEO Phil Morrow welcomed the investment.
“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.”
Sure Valley Ventures is a Dublin-based venture capital fund focused on early stage software companies involved in artificial intelligence, immersive technology, internet of things, cybersecurity and infosec.
Retineze’s funding comes from its recently announced UK Software Venture Capital Fund
“We are delighted to be able to support RETìníZE as the first investment of our recently launched software fund, as it enters this exciting new phase,” Sure Valley Ventures Principal, Isabelle O’Keeffe, said. “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 companies, like RETìníZE, which are bringing a disruptive innovation to market.”
