“Refract, a Singapore-based extended reality (XR) startup, announced today it has raised an approximately $8.5 million SGD (approximately $6 million) Series A from investors including Sea Limited, international family offices and individuals.” – Tech Crunch
The company has been working on a virtual reality system for virtual sports events.
“Refract has already secured strategic relationships with the likes of World Taekwondo as part of its virtual sports program, working with the federation to make Virtual Taekwondo a medal event in the near future. The partnership came about when World Taekwondo saw an opportunity to gamify the sport and reach out to a broader, tech-savvy audience by creating a new discipline, Chng told TechCrunch. Refract also plans to feature AXIS at the 2022 Global Esports Games in Istanbul, Turkey.”
“AXIS represents a huge step forward in bringing high fidelity motion tracking and capture technology to a broader audience; innovating within the space and delivering even more immersive gaming experiences,” said Chong Geng Ng, executive director of Refract. “Our investment reflects the strong belief Sea and our other investors have in our vision and creativity as well as the huge untapped potential of the XR gaming market.”
“It’s exciting to see a Singaporean company like Refract driving the development of innovative technologies in XR and VR,” said Jason Ng, vice president of strategic partnerships, at Sea’s digital entertainment arm, Garena. “We are pleased to support their growth and the development of the overall innovation ecosystem in Singapore.”
“Sea and our other investors recognized the talent at Refract as well as the enormous potential of AXIS. The successful completion of the AXIS Kickstarter campaign proves that there is a dedicated community of gamers who share this vision, and we look forward to delivering AXIS and FreeStriker to them in 2022,” Chng said.
