Norwegian startup Muybridge emerges from stealth to ‘reinvent’ the camera

Deep tech startup Mybridge has emerged from the shadows with an €8mn investment to fuel its objective — to revolutionise the way we take photos.

Founded by Håkon Espeland and Anders Tomren in 2020, Muybridge has spent the last four years developing real-time computer vision technology that uses software to replace most of the moving parts found in traditional cameras.

“Muybridge is one of those rare companies that has managed to combine enabling technologies in a way that opens a new paradigm,” said Filip Petersson, partner at Scandinavian VC Fairpoint Capital, the lead investor in the funding round.  

While cameras and smartphones already enhance images using software-based techniques like computational photography, the physical components involved in capturing the scene — like lenses or sensors — still greatly limit the end result.

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Instead of relying on a fixed camera system, Muybridge uses multiple small sensors and software to create “virtual cameras” that can simulate different perspectives, angles, and movements without needing physical changes in the device. This gives Muybridge’s system much greater flexibility in capturing and processing images in real time. 

“Think of the bullet time scene in The Matrix, where the actor was surrounded by multiple cameras,” Muybridge’s CEO and fo-founder, Håkon Espeland, told TNW. “Now, just imagine hundreds or thousands of them — each as small as a smartphone camera — lined up, feeding visuals into software.

“Now imagine that setup within the walls of your video conferencing room around a sports stadium, or even within a tennis court net or between football goal posts, with multiple cameras and sensors pushing imagery from new and never seen before angles, while state of the art software combines those multiple feeds into one video feed ready for broadcast — that’s revolutionary.”

Muybridge is now gearing up to break out from the lab and into industries like sports, broadcasting, surveillance, and enterprise communications. The company, which employs 30 people, also plans to scale its workforce. 

Alongside Fairpoint Capital, the funding round was joined by existing investors RunwayFBU, Idekapita, Vikingstad Invest, and several angels. For Muybridge it marks a pivotal moment in its mission to transform the camera industry.