I’m not sure what happened after October 2020, but it seems that plans for vehicle-based augmented reality HUD (head-up display) startup Envisics to have its technology in JLR’s cars this year apparently won’t come to pass. Plan B is that the tech will debut in a GM Cadillac next year.

But let me backtrack a tad so you know what I’m talking about.

I first mentioned Envisics in October 2020 after they had raised $50m in a series B funding round which valued the startup at over $250m (see Motor giants believe in augmented reality Christmas).

One of Envisics’ earliest customers at the time (indeed, since 2010) was Tata Motors-owned JLR, for whom Envisics (then known as Two Trees) had developed a HUD mooted to appear in its vehicles in 2023. However, I can’t find anything to confirm this came to pass, other than a statement that JLR was the first OEM customer for Envisics’ technology and that its next-gen technology will appear in JLR’s luxury vehicles at an unspecified date.

But back to the present, with the news that Envisics has just received ‘over $50m’ as part of a Series C funding round led by prior backer Hyundai Mobis, with follow-on investment from InMotion Ventures, the investment arm of JLR, and Stellantis Ventures, the VC arm of the Amsterdam-HQ’d creation resulting from the imaginative merger of Fiat Chrysler and PSA. This latest raise reportedly values Envisics at $500m post-money.

Though HQ’d in Milton Keynes, Envisics Ltd. is owned by Envisics Inc., a Delaware corporation. Envisics turned over £2.3m in 2021 (its latest accounts on record) though made an operating loss of over £14m, with some £6.7m spent on R&D. The company is led by founding CEO Dr Jamieson Christmas, who has a rich background in advanced photonics.

I am every bit wowed by Envisics’ technology today as I was back in 2020. With the backing of global vehicle industry giants, I’d like to think that Envisics will become a huge global success story and put Milton Keynes on the map as the beating heart of UK auto-tech (OK, Delaware, then).

PS. What I still really, really want is a HUD with rear-view and side-view images projected in front of me so I don’t have to keep looking away from the road in order to ‘mirror, signal, manoeuvre’. Father Christmas please note!

This content was originally published here.