Teooh

Venture-backed Virtual Reality Startup

Company Information

Website:

http://teooh.com

Sector:

Virtual Reality

Location:

San Francisco, CA

Teooh is virtual-reality-based software for events.

Its software enables anyone to “host” an online event by creating a virtual space. Attendees create individual digital avatars and interact with each other at these events.

Teooh has raised $2.4 million from professional startup investors including General Catalyst, a firm that’s invested in Airbnb, Snapchat, and Warby Parker. Other notable investors include Loup Ventures, Kima Ventures, Uphonest Capital, Betaworks Ventures, and Courtside Ventures.

Most recently, Teooh has conducted successful pilot events with 10 companies. It’s raising funds with the goal of adding 100 new customers to its platform in 2020.

Hosting events offline is an $860 billion global market. But increasingly, companies and individuals are conducting meetings and events online.

This shift is partly due to the waste created by in-person events. 40% of discarded meeting materials end up in landfills. And attendees travel an average distance of 321 miles for each event.

Recent fears of the coronavirus have added to the theory that in-person meetings aren’t necessary. Companies like Facebook and IBM recently canceled conferences.

Teooh’s platform enables companies to embrace this shift to online meetings. Here’s how it works:

Organizers use Teooh’s tool to create and host an event. Attendees create avatars of themselves and join the event using their mobile phone.

Events are typically set up with traditional spaces including a main stage, breakout rooms, and networking rooms.

Once “inside” the event, attendees can meet other people, and take part in virtual panels, roundtable discussions, fireside chats, and Q&A sessions.

Teooh earns revenue through a “pay-as-you-go” business model. It charges event organizers $1.99 per attendee, plus 20% of ticket sales. As an example, if an organizer charges attendees $20 per ticket and sells 100 tickets, Teooh earns roughly $600 from the event ($200 for attendees, and $400 from total ticket sales).

Teooh developed its platform in 2018. In 2019, it partnered with 10 brands to co-host “test” events. One such event was Loup Venture’s briefing on “Apple’s Market Cap Potential.”

At this event, the company had 67 attendees from 8 countries. 70% of attendees stayed for the entire hour-long event. Other successful pilots included events from companies discussing mental health issues in the workplace, a live podcast event, and a company director hosting a fireside chat with employees.

Teooh’s goal is to add 100 companies to its platform over the next year. It expects each company to host an event roughly every two months, with each event bringing in around 50 attendees. If possible, that would translate to between $30,000 to $150,000 in revenue for Teooh, depending on the price of the tickets.

Teooh’s long-term growth will rely on a principle called “network effects.” Essentially, this is the idea that, the more users a product or service has, the more valuable it is for each user.

Team Background

Jon Hibbins - Co-Founder & CTO

Before starting Teooh, Jon founded Psytec Games, a gaming company that developed virtual-reality-based content. Games were developed for notable platforms like Playstation VR and Oculus Rift.

Prior to that, Jon was Chief Technology Officer of IV Platform Limited, a computer software company. He gained earlier software experience as a software development manager for Office-Shadow, a risk analysis company.

Don Stein - Co-Founder & CEO

Don has a background in virtual reality and computer design.

He began his career with OmniVirt, an advertising platform creating virtual- and augmented-reality-based ads.

From there he worked for Synapse Technology Corporation, a company using Artificial Intelligence and computer vision to modernize the security industry.

More recently, Don worked for 6D.ai, a company co-founded by the University of Oxford that focuses on 3D scene reconstruction using computer imaging.

He studied Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship at Indiana University.

Co-Investors

Newfund Capital

A venture capital firm investing in early-stage companies. Notable investments include Luckey, TradeIT, and 1001Pharmacies.

UpHonest Capital

An international venture capital firm investing in early-stage startups. Portfolio includes Scout, TalkIQ, and Native.

Loup Ventures

A venture capital firm investing in tech-based companies focused on areas including Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, and Robotics.

Kima Ventures

Seed-stage fund, investor in Lyft

General Catalyst Partners

Early stage and growth equity fund, investor in Airbnb, Brightcove, ClassPass, GroupMe, Handy, Jet, Kayak, Oscar, Stripe, Venmo, & Warby Parker

Courtside Ventures

A venture capital firm investing in early-stage companies focused on the sports, media, and technology markets.

Betaworks

A venture capital company that invests in consumer-facing media businesses.

Raising
$1.07 million
Committed
$590.414K (55%)
Current Valuation
$10 million Cap / 0% Discount
Min. Investment
$100
Deal Type
Title III
(For all investors)
Offering Type
SAFE
Finance History
  • $100K
    2018-08-14
    Unknown
  • $100K
    2019-03-30
    Unknown
  • $765K
    2019-01-01
    Unknown
  • $1.025 million
    2018-11-01
    Unknown
Notable Investors
  • Newfund Capital
  • UpHonest Capital
  • Loup Ventures
  • Kima Ventures
  • General Catalyst Partners
  • Courtside Ventures
  • Betaworks
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