Meet the latest WXR Investments: Prisms of Reality & Scatter
We are thrilled to announce two new startups to the WXR Fund portfolio. Leaders in their industries, the founders are using deep knowledge of their space combined with new technologies to take volumetric capture and math education to the next level.
Prisms of Reality
Prisms of Reality is an SF & NYC-based ed tech company that is scaling hands-on problem-solving across secondary math & the physical sciences. Prisms has an award-winning team of educators, designers, game developers and data scientists who build inspiring, efficient and data-driven learning experiences to close the opportunity gap in STEM for all students.
Why we are excited: Fragile math understandings have long been the root cause of high STEM attrition rates. CEO Anurupa Ganguly, a former district math teacher, founded Prisms of Reality to solve this problem by using new technologies like virtual reality.
Anurupa’s experience as a math & physics teacher as well as her later leadership roles across the Boston Public Schools, NYC DOE, and Success Academies gave her an end - to end view on learning as well as the technology adoption process. She holds a BS and MEng in EECS from MIT and an EdM from BU.
Development and adoption of Immersive Learning has accelerated since the beginning of the pandemic as highlighted in the iLRN inaugural State of XR and Immersive Learning Report, which combines a systematic review and synthesis of the scholarly evidence and knowledge base on XR and immersive learning.
Pandemic by Prisms is an algebra learning game that builds lasting fluency with exponential functions and allows the student to apply algebraic thinking to one of the most important problems today - the global pandemic. The beta version is available in the Oculus App Lab, Steam, and SideQuest to gather feedback and build excitement.
Supported by the NSF, Prisms' complete Algebra learning solution, including the final release of Pandemic by Prisms will be available to thousands of students Fall 2021. The course will include 5 multi-part modules on the topics of linear functions, quadratics, exponentials (Pandemic), systems of equations, and statistics.
Scatter
Scatter is on a mission to democratize hologram creation. Scatter’s signature software product, Depthkit, makes creating and sharing volumetric content cost effective and easy.
Why we are excited: The tightly-knit team at Scatter is composed of some of the most talented creators and technologists in the XR industry. They’ve produced Emmy-award winning content and are generous with sharing their expertise and learnings with the broader community, such as this glimpse into the Depthkit pilot program they recently published.
Depthkit is well positioned to gain market share as more brands, artists and studios begin making volumetric content. The volumetric video market is projected to go from $1.4B in 2020 to $5.8B in 2025.
Scatter is premiering its most ambitious volumetric film to date, The Changing Same, at the 2021 Tribeca Festival Immersive Lineup. The Changing Same VR is a Scatter and Rada Studio co-production being screened June 9 - June 20.
The Changing Same: An American Pilgrimage is an episodic virtual reality experience on racial justice. Through elements of time-travel, participants traverse the 400-year history of racial inequality in the US while projecting forward to a joyful, Afrofuturist world of possibilities.
"I see the power and value of reclaiming history. Change requires exposing denied experiences. I’ve dedicated my practice to unearthing these types of stories using emerging technology. And in the US there is a need and urgency to uncover these buried histories - our history." - Yasmin Elayat, Co-Founder at Scatter
