Scoop: LED screen startup raises $10M seed round

A year after Vū Studio took over former retail spaces at University Mall, its founders say they've raised the biggest seed round ever for a Tampa tech company.

What's happening: Tim Moore and Jonathan Davila tell Axios their production company has received a $10 million seed investment from Minnesota-based ADX Labs, at a $50 million valuation.

• The funding will help advance the tech and open new studios in Nashville and Las Vegas next year.

What they do: Vū uses an LED Volume screen made up of 500 panels to create realistic backdrops that can move and change along with camera angles.

• It's as close as you can possibly be to a location without actually being there and what Davilla calls "game engine technology combined with traditional production."
• In the year since Vū opened, it's been used by brands like WWE, Mercedes, Apple, and Neiman Marcus along with artists like Bad Bunny and Twenty One Pilots.

What they're saying: "Green screen is going to go totally extinct and be replaced by this technology," Davilla said. "It's just so much more realistic looking."

• "And you'll never miss a shot."

Why it matters: This is the kind of technology that got projects like "The Mandalorian" made when the pandemic stopped people from filming on location.

• Vū is one of only a handful of similar studios in the country and claims to be the nation's first LED Volume virtual production company specializing in commercials.

• Virtual production is set to expand into a multi-billion dollar industry, Davilla said, and Tampa is at the forefront of that.
• "This is a real blue ocean opportunity."

Background: The studio is part of Rithm at Uptown, the tech campus taking over the mall along with other innovators like the USF program designing the future of casualty-free warfare.

💭 Selene's thought bubble: This place is beyond cool. My jaw was dragging on the floor the whole time. I can't wait to see where this goes and who it brings to Tampa.