The Fellowship of the Ring: Russian fund Titanium has invested $ 1 million on top of an electronic ring with vague prospects

The Russian fund Titanium Investments has invested in the Israeli technical MUV Interactive , despite the fact that its market prospects are very ambiguous. The fund has allocated an additional $ 1 million as a convertible loan for the launch of the Bird sensor device series.

Investors expect that in two years the volume of demand for it will exceed $ 100 million. MUV Interactive plans to spend borrowed funds to release thousands of devices.

Source: MUV Interactive
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A convertible loan is an investment format in which an investor invests in a startup and in return receives not a stake in the company, but a “discount” on the purchase of shares in the next round of investments. MUV Interactive's total investment exceeded $ 5 million. This amount includes several million dollars from Titanium.

Bird is a ring on the index finger, equipped with sensors. The device projects an image of the display of a computer, tablet or smartphone onto any surface and allows a person to work in applications by moving his finger with the Bird wearing it like a computer mouse. Bird recognizes gestures that repeat the movement of fingers on the touch screen of smartphones and tablets. “Due to radiation, you can use a table, a wall, a window as a surface,” says Titanium Investments partner Igor Sulkis.

The scope of the product is very wide: from the management of drones to the organization of professional presentations, in the system of teaching children and managing household appliances, says Titanium Investments CEO Alexander Aivazov. “The growth potential of this business is huge,” he said. The priority markets for Bird sales are the USA, India and China, says Igor Sulkis. Bird price on pre-order, without delivery - $ 249.

Implementation of the project, most likely, is fraught with great technological difficulties: a lot of things are promised to users in marketing materials, which will be extremely difficult to implement, says co-founder and CEO of Mail.ru Group , Grishin Robotics founder Dmitry Grishin: “At a price of $ 249 and because of high requirements for the user - you need to carry something on your hand in public and radically change your habits of interaction with digital devices - I still do not see the potential for massive sales. ” There were quite a few similar projects at different times, but they all suffered from a common problem - the lack of a killer application, understandable use case, he told Kommersant.

“First of all, the new device will attract those who like to test all new items with their own hands. The segment will start expanding and will become more widespread as devices appear in it in different price segments, including budget ones, ”says Maria Zaikina, a representative of Svyaznoy.

MUV Interactive is an Israeli developer of innovative finger-point devices that turn any space into an interactive 3D environment.