Former Amazon, Microsoft engineers raise $120K for Seattle cloud startup Cloudshim

A new startup out of Seattle called Cloudshim just raised $120,000 to help grow the company’s self-serve cloud management platform.

Founded by two brothers who previously worked at Microsoft and Amazon — Lokesh Taneja and Vishal Taneja — Cloudshim aims to help companies manage cloud infrastructure services and track associated cloud costs.

“Most competitor products have gone upmarket, tailoring their product around enterprise requirements,” said Lokesh Taneja. “This has left a void to be filled for customers that just want a simple and quick way to manage their cloud without heavy contractual processes.”

The software currently supports Amazon Web Services users but will soon expand to Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure.

Black Lion Ventures was the sole investor in the “pre-seed” round. Cloudshim plans to raise a larger round in the next year. The company employs nine people.

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Microsoft cloud vets raise $26M for drug prescription data platform Prescryptive Health

Prescryptive CEO Chris-Blackley. (Prescryptive Photo)

Seattle startup Prescryptive Health raised $26 million for its prescription data platform software.

Founded in 2017 by Microsoft commercial cloud vets Chris Blackley and Kevin Young, the company works with employers to help inform employees about prescription drug prices and other related information. It has direct connection to more than 50,000 pharmacies in its national network. The platform integrates in real-time with benefit plans and providers at the point of care.

“Our platform reduces benefit costs without reducing benefits — that’s good for both employers and employees, especially during this time,” Blackley said.

Morningside Ventures led the round, which included participation from SeaChange Fund and Pallasite Ventures. Morningside co-founder Dr. Gerald Chan joined the board.

Total funding to date for the 30-person company is $35 million.

Prescryptive is one of many digital health startups attracting investor interest this year. Venture funding for the U.S. digital health sector is expected to break a new record in 2020; companies already raised $5.4 billion through June, according to RockHealth.

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Bungie vets raise $9M for VR game studio Polyarc to pursue augmented reality development

Polyarc co-founders, from left to right: Tam Armstrong, Danny Bulla, and Chris Alderson. (Polyarc Photo)

Virtual and augmented reality have yet to catch on with mainstream consumers, but investors are still betting on the immersive technology.

Seattle startup Polyarc raised a $9 million Series B round led by Hiro Capital, with participation from Vulcan Capital and Galaxy Interactive.

Founded in 2015 by veterans of Bungie, Polyarc is the developer behind Moss, a popular virtual reality game that debuted two years ago.

Now Polyarc plans to add augmented reality as a core competency within its studio.

“The pillars of Polyarc’s development in VR are physical interaction, emotional feedback, and suspension of disbelief through immersion,” said Tam Armstrong, co-founder and CEO. “We anticipate that our pillars of AR development will be physical interaction, emotional feedback, and suspension of disbelief through object persistence. Experiencing the feeling that a character is a living being in our own world — not just in another world somewhere else — will be a powerful experience for players.”

Various startups in the mixed reality industry have struggled in recent years as the technology has yet to catch on as many anticipated. Fellow Seattle-area companies including Vreal and Pixvana have either shut down or pivoted over the past year.

Armstrong is still bullish about VR and AR, citing advances in hardware development such as untethered devices. He said the hype was warranted but the rate of adoption got a bit ahead of itself.

“We are collectively contributing to a new form of computing, and it takes time to build a full stack that results in a good user experience,” Armstrong said. “As the industry grows, we scope our projects and grow the company carefully in step.”

He said AR will draw in even more users because it superimposes interactions on the real world and opens up opportunities for other applications outside of games.

Polyarc is focused on using the “fully-tracked” medium to create new ways for gamers to connect with characters.

“We are a step closer to seeing games that make real the dreams we had playing with toys as kids,” Armstrong said.

One trend going in Polyarc’s favor is the increase in video game engagement amid the pandemic, which is driving gaming adoption in the U.S.

Armstrong spent more than six years at Bungie, where he led an animation engineering team that developed the hugely-popular Destiny game. He also worked on the engineering team that developed Halo: Reach.

Armstrong founded Polyarc with Danny Bulla and Chris Alderson. Bulla is another Bungie veteran, spending nearly four years as a senior gameplay designer on Destiny. He previously worked at Rockstar Games and Midway. Bulla and Armstrong also both spent two months as prototype consultants for Oculus. Alderson spent seven years at Bungie from 2008 to 2015 as a character art lead, working on both Destiny and Halo titles.

The funding will allow Polyarc to work on multiple projects at once, Armstrong said, including additional VR titles. The 27-person company last raised cash in 2016.

Ian Livingstone, a founding partner of Hiro Capital, will join the Polyarc board as a result of the fresh funding.

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Bungie vets raise $9M for VR game studio Polyarc to pursue augmented reality development

Polyarc co-founders, from left to right: Tam Armstrong, Danny Bulla, and Chris Alderson. (Polyarc Photo)

Virtual and augmented reality have yet to catch on with mainstream consumers, but investors are still betting on the immersive technology.

Seattle startup Polyarc raised a $9 million Series B round led by Hiro Capital, with participation from Vulcan Capital and Galaxy Interactive.

Founded in 2015 by veterans of Bungie, Polyarc is the developer behind Moss, a popular virtual reality game that debuted two years ago.

Now Polyarc plans to add augmented reality as a core competency within its studio.

“The pillars of Polyarc’s development in VR are physical interaction, emotional feedback, and suspension of disbelief through immersion,” said Tam Armstrong, co-founder and CEO. “We anticipate that our pillars of AR development will be physical interaction, emotional feedback, and suspension of disbelief through object persistence. Experiencing the feeling that a character is a living being in our own world — not just in another world somewhere else — will be a powerful experience for players.”

Various startups in the mixed reality industry have struggled in recent years as the technology has yet to catch on as many anticipated. Fellow Seattle-area companies including Vreal and Pixvana have either shut down or pivoted over the past year.

Armstrong is still bullish about VR and AR, citing advances in hardware development such as untethered devices. He said the hype was warranted but the rate of adoption got a bit ahead of itself.

“We are collectively contributing to a new form of computing, and it takes time to build a full stack that results in a good user experience,” Armstrong said. “As the industry grows, we scope our projects and grow the company carefully in step.”

He said AR will draw in even more users because it superimposes interactions on the real world and opens up opportunities for other applications outside of games.

Polyarc is focused on using the “fully-tracked” medium to create new ways for gamers to connect with characters.

“We are a step closer to seeing games that make real the dreams we had playing with toys as kids,” Armstrong said.

One trend going in Polyarc’s favor is the increase in video game engagement amid the pandemic, which is driving gaming adoption in the U.S.

Armstrong spent more than six years at Bungie, where he led an animation engineering team that developed the hugely-popular Destiny game. He also worked on the engineering team that developed Halo: Reach.

Armstrong founded Polyarc with Danny Bulla and Chris Alderson. Bulla is another Bungie veteran, spending nearly four years as a senior gameplay designer on Destiny. He previously worked at Rockstar Games and Midway. Bulla and Armstrong also both spent two months as prototype consultants for Oculus. Alderson spent seven years at Bungie from 2008 to 2015 as a character art lead, working on both Destiny and Halo titles.

The funding will allow Polyarc to work on multiple projects at once, Armstrong said, including additional VR titles. The 27-person company last raised cash in 2016.

Ian Livingstone, a founding partner of Hiro Capital, will join the Polyarc board as a result of the fresh funding.

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