The MTH Unboxing is a monthly format. One startup from the portfolio of the MediaTech Hub Accelerator will be presented in each issue. This time, you will learn more about the mediatech startup 2Sync.
Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality and Extended Reality - at least one of these buzzwords is always mentioned when it comes to innovative digital media technologies. There are many exciting applications that blur the boundaries between the “real reality” and the “virtual reality”: in gaming, education, medicine, or the metaverse, to name just a few examples. At the same time, this kind of technology offers the possibility to provide solutions for real-world problems.
The Potsdam-based startup 2Sync is fully committed to Mixed Reality. With its software platform, it is possible to integrate physical objects into a virtual space. In the current issue of MTH Unboxing, the two founders Julian Zietemann and Moritz Loos tell us more about what 2Sync actually is, how the company came to life, and why Potsdam is the perfect location for them.
MTH Accelerator: What did you do before 2Sync?
2Sync: 2Sync came out of a research project at the Hasso Plattner Institute. We were still students at the time, with this then leading to 2Sync being set up in 2019. Moritz had also worked as XR software developer in the automotive industry and Julian as an IT management consultant.
MTH Accelerator: How did 2Sync come into being?
2Sync: Moritz had kept on working with lots of enthusiasm on fine-tuning the software platform behind 2Sync after the research project was complete. We then met at an event of the Hasso Plattner Institute. It was shortly afterwards thatJulian tried out some mixed reality applications based on our software platform and not long then before we decided to collaborate on professionalising the project and set up 2Sync.
MTH Accelerator: What is 2Sync?
2Sync: The 2Sync software platform enables developers to deliver applications that synchronise real and virtual worlds with one another - in other words, develop mixed reality applications. Our tools facilitate the registration of physical objects, the description of virtual objects in real environments with a variety of properties & relationships, and the ultimate procedural generation of virtual information or entire worlds “on top” of the real environment. Like a virtual skin which is then overlaid on reality.
MTH Accelerator: What is your mission?
2Sync: The world of Mixed Reality applications is still very new and only defined in vague terms in some parts - because solutions like ours haven’t existed until now. We want to change that by giving more developers and companies the opportunity to provide such applications and thus create real added value in various fields. Whether it’s for end customers in the field of entertainment, or with a focus on companies in the field of training, sales, events, and collaboration, etc.
MTH Accelerator: Why Mixed Reality?
2Sync: In our opinion, Mixed Reality combines the best of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality and has an enormous potential for the future. At the same time, it is a relatively new and rapidly developing technology that allows us to think creatively and enthusiastically about new solutions and approaches that have never been thought of before and could generate unprecedented benefits for users and companies.
MTH Accelerator: Why found a company in Potsdam?
2Sync: Firstly, we love the city. And secondly, we have got the ideal environment here: we have two very good research institutions in the Hasso Plattner Institute and the University of Potsdam. The HPI School of Entrepreneurship and Potsdam Transfer are two excellent places to obtain advice ahead of launching a start-up and being supported in the period between a research project and the start-up. And the Mediatech Hub Potsdam also provides us with access to the de:hub which is in exactly the same specialist field as 2Sync and is supporting us in the initial phase.