Quintar raises $3M for live sports and entertainment AR platform

Quintar has raised a second seed round of $3 million to build out its augmented reality platform for live sports and entertainment.

Santa Clara, California-based Quintar hopes to change the way that people participate in live sports and entertainment, and it will use the money to build its tech and expand its content creator and app developer collaborations.

The round was led by SeventySix Capital and included a pair of strategic partners: Nreal, a maker of consumer AR glasses, and SharpLink Gaming, a pioneer in sports betting technology, said Sankar “Jay” Jayaram, CEO of the company.

“Two important things happened with this round that have us very excited,” Jayaram. “First, every one of our major investors reinvested in the company because they believe in the team and our vision and are excited [about] the progress. Second, having strategic investors like Nreal and SharpLink will help us accelerate and develop the most engaging and comfortable user experiences for fans everywhere.”

He was one of the cofounders of Voke, a virtual reality company. Voke used VR to broadcast sports events in a more immersive way for fans. Intel bought the company in 2016 as it drove into the sports tech market, and Jayaram stayed on for a while as the chief technology officer for Intel Sports.

In 2019, Jayaram decided that AR was going to be more popular than VR, as it was still immersive but didn’t require the purchase of expensive headsets. He started Quintar with cofounder Jeff Jonas, who does the deals while Jayaram focuses on the tech. With AR, you still see the real world and add things to it in order to experience something more immersive.

“You’re providing a virtual experience, and VR and AR are very similar technologies,” Jayaram said. “VR is a more isolating experience. AR can be social. We knew that AR was going to be big.”

Quintar uses long-range registration and stereoscopic streaming to place accurate, dynamic AR content on the event surface and allow content creators and rights holders to deliver personalized, interactive experiences for fans on mobile phones, TVs, and AR wearables at the venue or in their own living room. Quintar plans to use the new funding to continue to expand its engineering and product teams.

“Quintar is capitalizing on the successful initial debut of its augmented reality (AR) platform with the PGA Tour and is poised to make a significant impact on both sports and entertainment,” said Chad Stender, a partner at SeventySix Capital, which specializes in sports technology investments, in a statement. “We’re excited to back the strong, experienced team at Quintar as they navigate their growth at the intersection of sports, data, and the metaverse.”

After executing a successful beta launch with the PGA TOUR during three of last year’s FedEx Cup Playoff events, Quintar has been focused on expanding the capabilities of the platform to bring awe-inspiring multi-layered worlds to life for live sports and entertainment events. With SharpLink’s expertise in sports betting and Nreal’s focus on developing next-generation user experiences, Quintar has access to resources to help fuel growth.

“We believe AR is an incredibly attractive medium that will continue to enhance the sports betting industry,” SharpLink CEO Rob Phythian said in a statement. “Fans are looking for the most dynamic and engaging experiences that they can find, which AR can offer, but only if you have a platform that enables them. Quintar is the only company doing this effectively for live sports and we are excited to be aligned with them.”