Scape Technologies

Founded in 2016 by Edward Miller and Huub Heijnen, Scape Technologies emerged from London as a computer vision startup focused on developing a new infrastructure for spatial computing. Miller, serving as CEO, brought a background in interactive and immersive imagery, having produced 360-degree video content and the first news documentary for the Oculus Rift. Heijnen, the CTO, contributed expertise in robotics and machine learning. The duo's mission was to enable any camera-equipped machine to understand its physical surroundings with greater precision than GPS allows.

The core of Scape's offering was its Visual Positioning Service (VPS), a cloud-based system that processes images and videos to create large-scale, machine-readable 3D maps of cities. Through the company's API and ScapeKit SDK, devices could query these maps to determine their exact location and orientation with centimeter-level accuracy. This technology was designed to solve the limitations of GPS, which can be inaccurate in dense urban environments, by allowing devices to localize themselves by recognizing their surroundings. The system was built to be scalable, initially launching in London with plans for expansion.

Scape Technologies targeted developers in augmented reality, providing the tools to anchor persistent AR content to specific physical locations, envisioning city-scale games and informational overlays. Beyond AR, the technology held applications for mobility, logistics, and robotics, including autonomous vehicles that require precise environmental awareness for safe navigation. The business model centered on providing access to the Visual Positioning Service via its API and SDK, compatible with platforms like Unity, Android, and iOS.

After raising $8 million in a seed funding round from investors including Entrepreneur First, Mosaic Ventures, and LocalGlobe, the company gained significant traction. In February 2020, Scape Technologies was acquired by Facebook (now Meta) for a reported sum of around $40 million. This acquisition was a strategic move by Facebook to enhance its own augmented reality capabilities, likely for its AR glasses and the development of 'LiveMaps', a real-time, crowdsourced digital copy of the physical world.

Keywords: visual positioning service, computer vision, augmented reality, 3D mapping, location accuracy, spatial computing, AR cloud, localization engine, ScapeKit SDK, geolocation API, machine perception, persistent AR, city-scale mapping, Facebook acquisition, Meta, Edward Miller, Huub Heijnen, autonomous navigation, robotics, immersive technology