A year ago we published a post about Kino-mo, a London-based startup founded by two Belarusians Kiryl Chykeyuk and Art Stavenka. They developed a device, named “holo-display”, for projecting holography-like 3D content at a small fraction of the cost of real holograms. Put simply, this is a breakthrough for the outdoor ads industry. In 2015 Kino-mo presented these 3D displays at Pitch to Rich competition backed by Richard Branson, the king of Virgin empire. And they won. The same year, the holo-displays landed among TOP 3 British innovations of the Year.
I briefed you on the award part of the story, and here’re proofs of the commercial demand. The team struck a deal with the advertising agency D-Media, and their holo-displays were installed in a number of bars and nightclubs in England. Currently, partners and distributors from 17 countries are testing the devices, and such brands as Red Bull, Unilever, and, of course, Branson’s Virgin Media expressed interest in the technology.
In January 2016 Kino-mo exhibited at CES 2016 in Las Vegas, and the 3D projections drew huge crowds to their booth. As reported by Irish Times (and confirmed by tech bloggers who attended the show), “If you stopped by Kino-mo’s booth, you were lucky to get anywhere near it.“You will agree that this is an achievement per sei, given that we are talking about the largest and most popular gadget show in the world.
Just on a side note, our blog has also witnessed a massive traffic on the post featured below 🙂
At CES Kiryl and Art met Mark Cuban, an American businessman with a net worth of $3.3B according to Forbes. He owns the NBA’s basketball team Dallas Maverick, film distributor Magnolia pictures and Landmark Theaters, the largest movie theater chain in the USA. Mark is also an investor in Shark Tank, a reality program startup contest. He injected around $20M in 85 startups that pitched at the show.
Mark got interested in Kino-mo’s technology, and after 6 months of product testing and negotiations, they signed an investment agreement. The terms of the deal are undisclosed.
The company will use the funding to expand the team, apply for new patents, and accelerate the mass production of the holo-displays. Today Kino-mo counts 2o employees, with 5 people in London HQ, including the founders, and 15 in the development office in Minsk, Belarus.
