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Both convergence-focused NantWorks subsidiaries NantHealth and NantMobile closed up substantial funding rounds in the past few weeks, according to SEC filings recently made public.
Culver City’s NantMobile, which provides mobile interactions with offline images, music, and products, closed $15 million last week. NantHealth raised about $135 million from the Kuwait Investment Authority and an undisclosed amount from Blackberry in April.
NantWorks founder, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong (also a UCLA professor and minority Lakers owner) came from a background as a surgeon and sold two pharmaceutical companies for $8 billion before founding NantWorks in September 2011.
Though the scale of funding for NantHealth dwarfs the $15 million raised for NantMobile (the amount NantMobile also raised in January under the name NantiD), it’s clear that the technology has clear attraction to commercial companies looking to jump the offline-online gap.
NantMobile’s core product is the iD Browser, an app that combines music recognition with product comparison shopping from scanned barcodes as well augmented reality image recognition. The app also brings in gamification abilities to marketing campaigns and also has the ability to interact and track television screens. This technology is possible through the expanded resolution of phone cameras and increased database capabilities. While NantWorks is not the first to make use of it, they have 40 issued patents that protects their software.
With increasing focus on the cross-screen savvy consumer looking for a more integrated shopping experience, NantMobile is changing consumer boundaries by integrating print media to the online (trackable) world. Past examples have included playing CNN videos from an app-recognized scan of The LA Times. A partnership with JAKKS Pacific last year launched the DreamPlay app, which demonstrated 3D recognition that enabled interaction with Disney toys. Last November, NantMobile teamed up with Macy’s during the holiday season in a release of a Macy’s shopping app that brought to life an in-store “theme park” experience, as Dr. Soon-Shiong described in a previous interview.
