Reliance buys majority stake in AR/VR startup Tesseract

Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries has acquired Mumbai-based Tesseract Imaging, which was recently in the news for being part of Reliance’s mixed reality platform Holoboard.

Reliance had bought 92.7% stake in the company and had invested Rs 10.12 crore in May,  according to documents filed by Tesseract with the Registrar of Companies. 

The development was first reported by Inc42. The valuation of the company and the size of the deal could not be ascertained.

Reliance had announced its augmented reality platform Holoboard in partnership with Tesseract at its recently concluded 42nd annual general meeting.

Founded in 2015 by MIT alumnus Khistij Marwah, Tesseract has software and hardware products in augmented reality, virtual reality and mixed reality spaces. The company’s Holoboard offers holograms with a 90-degree view and can be paired with both Android and iOS devices.

During its AGM, Reliance showcased the use of Tesseract’s Holoboard for shopping, education and entertainment.

This adds Tesseract to the list of startups  acquired by Reliance to further its digital ambitions through its subsidiary Jio. Earlier this month, Reliance announced buying out a majority stake in Google-backed fashion marketplace Fynd. 

It had also bought a majority stake in artificial intelligence-based chatbot platform Haptik in April.

Reliance has bought major stakes in hyperlocal logistics company Grab, software company C-Square, vernacular language services platform Reverie, welfare schemes platform EasyGov and software services firm SankhyaSutra Labs.