Curioos + Augment team up with an Augmented Reality art exhibition

Innovation
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Last week, during the Journee Patrimoine des Startups, an event organized by Cup of Teach during which several startups – social payments’ Leetchi.com, wine subscription service Le Petit Ballon, Uber, and more –  I chose to attend my nearest startup’s open-door event, which happened to be independent digital art eCommerce startup Curioos. The startup, which we’ve written about numerous times, from their plans to roll out lower prices & custom iPhone cases (I saw a prototype at the event – totally awesome!) as well as their various collections that partners like Wacom curate on their site. This time, however, it was time to see something new: an augmented reality art exhibition.
Across the walls of their garage-entrance to their office space were QR codes with thumbnails of Curioos artwork, along with the staple Augment marker that LeCamping startup Augment uses to create their augmented reality visualization. After co-founders Mathieu Valoatto and Natacha Huguet Millot gave a talk and q&a session to all the visitors, there was an open BBQ and the guests when around the space selecting their art, and then projecting it onto the walls via their iPhone or iPads that were available.
The event was the kickoff to a partnership between the two startups which will allow all Curioos shoppers to view an augmented reality of the art they are interested in using Augment’s iPhone application.

Off to New York with fresh funds

Curioos also announced yesterday, as Frenchweb reported, that Curioos has raised a round of  €375K by a few notable business angels, including KDS and Snapcar founder Yves Weisselberger. I’m particularly excited about this deal because this is the first deal where I have been indirectly involved in, as I introduced Yves and Mathieu months back at an event I had invited them both to, after I learned of Yves’ business angel activities. I tweeted by in July when I heard that Yves had decided to invest in Curioos, and I’m excited to be able to share the news today.


With this money, Voloatto will be moving to New York, ready to bring Curioos to the art community there. With the success they’ve seen in recent months, and the changes/reiterations/evolutions they’ve undergone since I first saw them at Start in Paris a year ago, I’m confident they’ll succeed.