Hypereal

Hypereal, a virtual reality technology company, was established in Shanghai's Caohejing Hi-Tech Park in July 2015 by founder Tony Huang. The firm secured a significant Series B funding round of $10.5 million in March 2017, with participation from notable investors including Telstra Ventures, Qiming Venture Partners, SIG China, and Bertelsmann Asia Investments. Qiming Venture Partners, founded in 2006, is a prominent venture capital firm with a diverse portfolio and a history of backing successful tech companies like Xiaomi and Meituan.

The company set out to build a comprehensive VR ecosystem, encompassing hardware, software, and content developed in-house. Its product line featured the Pano and Pano Pro headsets, designed to compete with other market players by offering high-resolution displays and low latency. The Pano headset, revealed at ChinaJoy 2016, featured a 2K OLED display, a 90Hz refresh rate, an 11ms latency, and a 110-degree field of view. The system also included HyFeel controllers and the HyTrack positioning system, and it was designed to be compatible with the SteamVR platform through the OpenVR SDK.

Alongside its hardware, Hypereal developed its own software tools and a content platform called HYPEREAL Home. In March 2017, it launched CAST, a VR sculpting tool, and Directool, a creative sandbox for animation, aiming to provide users with productivity and creative applications. The company planned to populate its platform with a curated selection of 80-100 high-quality VR games from both Chinese and international developers. However, by late 2017, reports began to surface regarding internal issues, including high executive turnover and sudden layoffs, casting uncertainty on the company's trajectory.

Keywords: Hypereal, virtual reality, VR headset, Pano headset, Tony Huang, Qiming Venture Partners, SIG China, Telstra Ventures, VR ecosystem, positioning tracking system, VR sculpting, VR animation, HyTrack, HyFeel, VR content platform, Shanghai startup, Chinese VR