Owl Labs, a Boston-based startup that creates 360-degree video conferencing solutions powered by AI, has raised $25 million in a Series C round of funding that was spearheaded by HP Tech Ventures, the company’s venture capital arm.
Playground Global, Matrix Partners, Spark Capital, and Japan’s Sourcenext were among the additional investors who took part in the round.
Along with receiving money, HP and Owl Labs agreed to a strategic relationship, which led to the addition of Angelo Del Priore to Owl Labs’ board of directors. Del Priore is a Partner at HP Tech Ventures.
The most recent round takes Owl Labs’ total capital raised to date to $47M.
The US business will make use of the new fund to support product development and broaden consumer acceptance of its offerings, such as Meeting Owl, Whiteboard Owl, and Meeting HQ.
The Meeting Owl 3 is the most recent item in the company’s line of premier products. Owl Labs products are used by more than 130,000 businesses worldwide, including 84 Fortune 100 firms, to assure fairness between in-person and remote attendees in hybrid meetings.
According to the agreement, HP will work with Owl Labs to maintain its rapid growth, invest in its hardware and software offerings, and strengthen relationships. Owl Labs and HP France have a commercial agreement, and HP will launch Owl Labs’ products there with their local sales teams.
Through the use of Owl Labs products, HP will also extend its reach and give sales coverage to corporate firms while also strengthening its ties to educational institutions and small enterprises.
According to Frank Weishaupt, CEO of Owl Labs, “Owl Labs was founded in 2014 based on emerging trends in remote collaboration – when the pandemic began six years later, the instant, worldwide adoption of distributed work kicked off a paradigm shift that accelerated our growth by 7X in the past few years.”
“We are careful about the businesses we collaborate with, and we are happy to partner with HP, an industry leader in the hybrid work technology field, with a vision that is very similar to our own,” continued Frank. Since HP has shown a clear commitment to converting the workplace to a hybrid model through the release of HP Presence as well as the acquisition of Poly and other investments in the sector, we believe the workplace will never be the same as it was before the epidemic. We will expand even more quickly thanks to this strategic alliance, and we’ll make sure to keep setting the pace for product development.
The first company to create 360-degree video conferencing solutions for hybrid organizations is Owl Labs.
The Meeting Owl 3 is the company’s flagship product and the first WiFi-enabled 360-degree camera, microphone, and speaker that automatically zooms in on the speaker.
With considerable sales and acceptance in important European areas, including France, Owl Labs has been growing internationally since 2020. France is a market with strong growth potential.
Stuart Collingwood, General Manager of the UK and Europe for Owl Labs, was recently hired by the firm. Stuart joins Owl Labs with a background in early- and late-stage startups, expanding businesses’ footprints and presence throughout Europe.
Owl Labs currently employs over 100 people, and 60% of its board of directors are foreign-born.
According to Angelo Del Priore, Partner at HP Tech Ventures, “Investing in Owl Labs matches with HP’s ambition to deliver more inclusive and immersive hybrid work solutions to our clients.” “Owl Labs’ innovative spirit and capacity for disruption have impressed us. Given the secular trends in hybrid work that present favorable conditions for ongoing innovation, disruption, and development, we believe that Owl Labs has a bright future.
Image Credit: Owl Labs
