Gracia AI raises £1.3m to commercialise volumetric video using 4D splatting
This article covers Gracia AI, a London ARVR startup, which has raised £1.3m to advance its 4D Gaussian Splatting pipeline toward production-ready volumetric video. The funding is intended to grow engineering capacity and accelerate capture, editing and real-time playback tools for XR creators, filmmakers, advertisers and VFX studios, aiming to make volumetric content viable for production workflows.
Gracia AI, a London ARVR startup, has raised £1.3 million to push its 4D Gaussian Splatting (4DGS) pipeline toward production-ready volumetric video for XR creators, filmmakers, advertisers and VFX studios. The funding will be used to grow engineering capacity and accelerate tools for capture, editing and real-time playback across standalone headsets and browsers — a technical step that could lower the barrier for volumetric content in commercial projects.
Why it matters
Volumetric video promises new creative freedom for immersive experiences, but has long been constrained by quality, performance and tooling. Gracia’s work on dynamic 4DGS addresses these limits by enabling real-time playback on untethered headsets, which matters because it moves volumetric content from experimental demos into workflows used by production teams.
The startup cites potential cost savings for productions — virtual sets replacing location shoots, reduced reshoots and less reliance on high-end camera rigs — figures that, if realised at scale, could make volumetric pipelines financially attractive to studios and brands. With more than 50 million next-generation XR headsets already shipped and nearly 100 million expected by the middle of the decade, demand from device owners and developers is rising, and ARVR investors are taking notice.
Inside the product
Gracia’s platform implements 4D Gaussian Splatting to capture, process and deliver volumetric video. Key components include cloud processing, studio-grade editing tools, timeline and camera control, and plugins for Unity and Unreal. The company says files typically average around 1GB per minute and that its pipeline supports real-time playback on Meta Quest 3 and 3S, Pico 4 Ultra, and WebGPU-based viewing on Mac and modern browsers.
The team reports it has moved from early static splatting prototypes to dynamic 4DGS that can run on standalone headsets without tethering. That transition is central to Gracia’s claim that volumetric footage captured at 50fps can be played back in ultra-smooth slow motion with reduced artefacts and preserved detail, making the format viable for demanding use cases such as sport and film.
Who are the investors?
Who are the investors?
The £1.3 million round includes backing from EWOR and an unnamed investor described as one of the original pioneers of NeRF technology. This follows an initial $1.2 million round earlier in 2024, when the company was still prototyping static Gaussian splatting.
In the announcement, Tipatat Chennavasin, General Partner at The Venture Reality Fund, said:
The quality that Gracia delivers in VR is unmatched
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Founder perspective
Gracia was founded by longtime friends Andrey Volodin and Georgii Vysotskii. Volodin, who serves as CTO, previously worked on Prisma’s breakthrough product and shared an early technical demonstration of the approach that gained viral attention among creators and developers. The founders pivoted from building a distribution platform to creating a full production backbone after community feedback highlighted the lack of practical tools.
In the announcement, Georgii Vysotskii, Co-founder of Gracia AI, said:
Volumetric video has existed for over a decade, but quality and performance limitations held it back In the announcement, Anton Fonin, R&D at Gracia, said: Earlier approaches struggled with fast and complex motion, either requiring excessive numbers of Gaussians or producing visible artefacts These quotes underline the team’s focus on removing technical blockers — especially around motion fidelity and playback performance — so that volumetric footage can be integrated into professional pipelines.
The bigger picture
Gracia’s technology is already being trialled across Big Tech research labs, Hollywood productions, European entertainment brands and live events. Examples include a 4DGS runway experience for fashion brand Karl Kani and volumetric attractions at PortAventura, a major European theme park. The company provides concrete cost-reduction estimates: virtual sets replacing physical shoots (saving $30,000–$70,000 per session), fewer costly reshoots ($50,000–$100,000 per day), and potential elimination of expensive robotic camera rigs (up to $15,000 per shot). Character-driven workflows are reported to be reduced by 30–50 percent.
These commercial examples show how a practical volumetric pipeline could shift budgeting and creative decisions in film, advertising and live events. For the UK and European XR ecosystem, Gracia’s progress is notable: it represents a London-based technical play aiming to close a tooling gap that has kept volumetric work specialist and costly. As device adoption grows, platforms that convert research demos into production-grade workflows will be key to turning interest into repeatable business for creators and studios.
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