Mental Canvas, a New York-based provider of a graphical-media-design system, received $2m in venture capital funding.
Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq “MSFT”) venture fund M12, in partnership with EQT Ventures and SVB Financial Group, provided the funds as part of the Female Founders Competition.
The company will use the funds to continue to expand operations and its business reach.
Led by Julie Dorsey (founder and chief scientist), Mental Canvas reimagines sketching for the digital age by augmenting it with spatial strokes, 3-D navigation and free-form animations, all drawn with the ease of pencil and paper.
Its graphical-media-design system lies between today’s 2D digital draw-and-paint systems and 3D computer-aided design systems, combining sketching with expansive 3D capabilities. Using the system, users can draw out ideas in a new interactive and shareable media type and Mental Canvas reimagines the sketch, adding new capabilities and bringing it into the digital age.
The core technology behind Mental Canvas was originally developed at Yale University by a research team led by Professor Dorsey. The company is currently building partnerships with major design, advertising, and media firms as well as publishers and tablet manufacturers.
FinSMEs
13/12/2018