The Boundary acquires Kiwi digital twins pioneer Buildmedia
The Boundary, a world-leading creative agency specialising in using CGI to create photorealistic marketing content for developers, destination marketers, and eCommerce brands with offices in London, New York City, and Auckland, has announced the acquisition of Buildmedia, a creative visualisation studio based in Auckland, New Zealand.
Considered a world leader in city-scale digital twins, off-plan interactive real estate sales, marketing solutions, and immersive eCommerce virtual reality experiences, Buildmedia was founded 20 years ago and uses Epic Games’ Unreal Engine technology. The company has produced numerous ground-breaking experiential solutions in recent years, which includes their proprietary interactive display suite solution Realspace.
This has been paired with particular expertise for high-fidelity virtual reality city and country-scale digital twins to create best-in-class technical capabilities and proprietary IP. The strategic acquisition will now combine this knowledge and abilities with photorealistic creative CGI and virtual reality expertise from The Boundary, a statement said.
The Boundary has developed a reputation as an expert collective of creative technologists, designers, filmmakers, and storytellers. It has worked on marketing campaigns for prestigious developments such as the Waldorf Astoria (New York), 175 Park Avenue (New York) and The Whiteleys (London) via the creation of hyper-photorealistic CGI visualisations, animated films, and virtual reality experiences, it continued.
Tom Wood, CEO of The Boundary, said: “This acquisition marks the next phase for The Boundary following impressive growth across North America and the EMEA, as we now naturally expand across APAC. We are delighted to welcome the very talented Buildmedia team into the family.”
He added that the acquisition means that The Boundary is now uniquely positioned to exceed the expectations of high-end real estate developers, destination marketers, and eCommerce focused brands looking to exploit emerging web3/metaverse opportunities via experiential interactive content and applications.
Web3 and Metaverse Service Offerings
With financial backing from private equity firm Mobeus, and the injection of a raft of vastly experienced executive management team members from Buildmedia, the new look business will be investing in research and development across their virtual reality/web3/metaverse services and applications, Wood continued.
“With over 100 in-house CGI artists and creative technologists operating at the very top end of the visualisation sector, The Boundary is now uniquely positioned to deliver photorealistic end-to-end client services across the emerging web3/metaverse in the Real Estate, Hospitality, eCommerce, and digital twin sectors.
“Crucially, the enlarged business also provides clients with the assurance of scale and financial stability which are prerequisites for large clients investing significant sums into multi-year metaverse and digital twin projects,” the statement continued.
The transfer of employees and complementary knowledge and IP between New Zealand and The Boundary’s London and New York studios will strengthen The Boundary’s client proposition across both hemispheres while providing all their clients with the benefit of 24/7 working patterns, the company said.
Epic Games have often cited Buildmedia’s digital twin of Wellington City as a benchmark of what’s possible using their technology. They have also contracted Buildmedia as one of only two Unreal Authorised Service Partners in the AEC (Architectural, Engineering and Construction) space.
