Welcome to Viewpoints, news and investment activity covering the next generation of computing - brought to you by FOV Ventures.

This Month:

• Meta’s Project Aria Gen 2

• Our latest analysis on Physical AI

• New Team Members!

Dave Haynes, Petri Rajahalme, Sointu Karjalainen & David Ripert (FOV Ventures) 

AI’s Leap From Information to Atoms

Last week, Meta unveiled the new Project Aria Gen 2 glasses aren't just another wearable – but another step forward where AI meets physical reality.

Weighing just 75 grams with 8-hour battery life, these unassuming glasses pack unprecedented sensing capabilities: SLAM cameras for spatial mapping, eye tracking, hand tracking, and two breakthrough sensors embedded in the nosepad – a PPG sensor measuring heart rate and a contact microphone distinguishing the wearer's voice from bystanders. All processing happens on Meta's custom silicon, directly on the device.

Why does this matter?

Because while chatbots excel at manipulating information, they remain fundamentally disconnected from the physical world where we actually live and work.

The race to bridge this gap is accelerating rapidly across the industry. Microsoft just introduced Magma, helping robots understand and interact with physical environments. While Nomagic secured $44M to expand their warehouse AI-robotics beyond Europe, NAES and Gecko Robotics formed a $100M partnership modernising power plants with AI-driven maintenance.

At FOV Ventures, we've anticipated this shift. Our latest analysis breaks down exactly what's needed to make physical AI work - specialised systems that understand physics like humans do, efficient simulation environments, and practical interfaces between AI and hardware.

More pressingly, we examine where investors should place their bets – not just in robotics, but in the software layers that make physical operations programmable (similar to how AWS transformed computing), and explain why our recent investment which transfers agents trained in game environments to real robots, demonstrates this approach's practical advantage.

If you're investing or building at the intersection of Spatial, AI, 3D, and Robotics, as ever we want to hear from you.

FOV NEWS

In Case You Missed Our Rebrand

Last month, we announced our rebrand, a reflection of our expanding vision for the future of computing.

Expanding Our Network

Asha Easton (Ventures Fellow):

FOV Ventures welcomes Asha Easton as our newest Ventures Fellow. After 6 years scaling the UK's immersive tech sector through leadership of Innovate UK's Immersive Tech Network, Asha brings valuable expertise connecting industry, academia, and government across XR ecosystems. Her cross-sector experience spans creative industries, healthcare, manufacturing, and more - making her well positioned to support our portfolio companies and thesis in spatial computing.

Rhys Hancock (EDGE Network member):

We're excited to welcome Rhys Hancock to FOV's EDGE Network. As founder of Metavision, the UGC gaming studio he built in partnership with ITV Group, Rhys pioneered interactive storytelling formats across platforms like Fortnite and Roblox. Following his acquihire by Epic Games, where he drove content innovation in the Fortnite ecosystem, Rhys now advises media companies and entertainment brands on content strategy, AI integration, and next-generation audience engagement. His expertise in UGC gaming and platform disruption will be invaluable to our founder community.

FOV Portfolio News

Starstuff is jumping into hyperspace in 2025 after a breakout year of 3D Gen AI tech, global appearances, and skyrocketing engagement. They're now gearing up for massive feature launches and next-level partnerships.

AiCoustics huge new partnership with Elgato on Voice Focus, a new feature eliminating background noise with unmatched precision, now available as a free update across Elgato devices.

Flow Computing is offering early access to their revolutionary PPU technology that promises to overcome CPU bottlenecks.

Distance Technologies welcomed Petteri Timonen as Principal XR Engineer and Co-Founder, bringing expertise from Apple and Varjo plus impressive accolades including having an asteroid named after him.

Graswald hosted another live demo, showcasing their AI solution for fashion brands to create on-brand visual content digitally. See the clips here.

MoveAI is launching stadium-scale, studio-quality motion capture with full 3D control for high-fidelity animation in Unreal Engine, Blender and other 3D engines.

Several FOV portfolio companies will be at GDC, including Scenario, Nunu.ai, Ray, Iconic Games, and Psytec Games.

FOV Job Board

• Move AI (London): Sales Development Representative (SDR)

• Doublepoint (Helsinki): User Testing Staff, Senior Interaction Designer

• GEEIQ (London): People & Operations Manager

• ai|coustics (Berlin): Team Assistant (Part-time, 50%), Platform Engineer, Audio Data Engineer

• Atopia Space (Remote/CET ±3): Senior Unity Developer

• Pixieray (Espoo, Finland): Multiple roles in technical and creative positions, including Senior Industrial Designer, Algorithm Developer, and Visual Artist

• ZENOS (Remote): Senior Technical Artist (Manager), Gameplay Programmer, Open Application

• Iconic AI (London, UK): Multiple roles, including Game Designer, Principal Animator, and Technical Artist

Thanks for reading, see you next time!