Founded from University of Surrey's Space Centre, iKinema was bought by Apple in a move seemingly aligned with the corporate's foray into virtual and augmented reality.

iKinema, a UK-based motion capture development tool spinout of University of Surrey, has been acquired by technology firm Apple for an undisclosed sum, Business Insider reported on Friday. The deal has not been officially announced but was seemingly confirmed by a regulatory filing updating iKinema’s registered office to that of Apple’s UK headquarters. Founded in 2006, iKinema provides software tools that help development teams leverage motion capture footage as the basis for rendering characters in films, video games and virtual reality content. The company exploits inverse kinematics models devised by its founder and chief executive Alexandre Pechev, then a lecturer in spacecraft control engineering at the university’s Surrey Space Centre. Originally intended for satellite control applications, Pechev’s inverse kinematics were adapted for motion capture and later used in major motion capture films such as X-Men: First Class and Wrath of the Titans 2. Apple currently offers a software development platform for augmented reality content and has patented concepts relating to a mixed reality headset and a variant of its Apple Watch for tracking hand gestures in VR games. It is believed to have been proactively seeking UK-based visual effect software developers. Peter Denwood, director for corporate law at Apple, has been appointed to iKinema’s board of directors. The spinout has not publicly announced details of its equity funding. – Feature image courtesy of iKinema

Subscribe to go deeper

GCV subscribers get access to all our proprietary data and deep-dive articles, as well as the global directory of CVC investors.



Not sure if you have a subscription?