Teooh is among the newer kids on the block, founded in 2018, and going into public beta in 2020. It has held a total of four funding rounds till date, picking up €4 million in cumulative investments with participation from Spark Capital and General Catalyst, among others. The pandemic propelled a 107% growth spurt for Teooh, and it has continued this momentum since then.
Like many VR startups, Teooh got its first leg up at the Tech Crunch Disrupt Startup battlefield. Co-founders Don Stein and Jon Hibbins (who bring years of AR/VR and gaming experience) wanted to build a platform specifically meant for entrepreneurial content. Today, Teooh is among the most promising companies in the UK’s startup space, aiming to revolutionise remote communication as we know it.
What are the Key Features of Teooh?
Teooh is designed to replace traditional video calls with persistent virtual spaces. Interestingly, Teooh isn’t available in VR — it is available as a desktop or mobile application, a more immersive alternative to Zoom or Teams Meetings.
Device compatibility
Teooh is ready for use on desktop and mobile devices. It works with both Windows and macOS operating environments. For mobile phones, Teooh supports iOS 11 or above and Android 6 or above. Interestingly, Teooh isn’t accessible via VR headsets, which might actually make it easier to use and reduce the barriers to entry for interested customers. Teooh is currently not compatible with web access.
Avatar technology
Given Teooh’s simplicity of value proposition, you could call it an avatar-based platform, where you can create a 3D rendering by choosing from different hairstyles, hair colour, facial features, outfits, and accessories. Teooh features full-figure avatars so that it looks like you actually walking around the virtual space.
Remote collaboration
From the Teooh app, you can create an event by choosing from a venue from the platform’s venue collection. It ships with venues for large meetings, networking events, one-on-one meetings and daily stand-ups. Once you have created the event, you will receive an event key (i.e., an invitation URL) that can be shared with event attendees. Teooh supports up to 80 current users.
User controls
Inside an event, user controls let you interact with participants, create tickets, and block users if necessary. You can point to someone sitting opposite you in the virtual space to initiate a one-on-one conversation via “whispering.” You can report, block, and mute/unmute users in an event.
What are the Benefits of Using Teooh?
Teooh has a refreshingly simple UI and comes with various solutions that cater to specific use cases. You can even monetise virtual interactions using Teooh thanks to its in-app ticket sale capabilities. Finally, Teooh doesn’t store any payment information and has a transparent data privacy policy.
How Much Will It Cost?
Teooh is currently in open beta (or early access) state, but it is largely reliable, as suggested by its near-real-time updated incident logs. The company’s monetisation policy is centred on ticket sales, and Teooh plans to monetize avatar and scene customisation in the future.
