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On April 24, 2024, the Munich District Court ordered preliminary insolvency administration over the assets of Holoride GmbH.
“We transform cars into rolling amusement parks and advance the future of in-car entertainment” – that is the mission of Holorides. The Munich-based company has developed patent-pending technologies that synchronize VR games and content with the speed, cornering, acceleration, steering and braking of cars. Or as Holoride calls it: Elastic content. In 2021 there was the German Computer Game Award in the category 'Best innovation and technology'.
The Holoride 'experience' has its price: The Starter pack for tariffs between 600 and 700 € includes HTC Vive VR glasses, a gamepad and a 3-month subscription for a games library that is still very clear – for each additional month you should pay 12.99 €. In the meantime, a rental program has also been launched.
The “automobile reality expansion” (Audi self-promotion) is obviously not compatible with the reality of the market: Holoride GmbH has been under provisional insolvency administration since April 24th (ref.: 1501 IN 1302/24).
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Two days earlier, the Swedish automotive supplier Terranet announcedthat the Scandinavian company will not inject any further capital. Terranet had held a 10 percent stake in Holoride since 2021 and, along with the Ingolstadt-based car manufacturer Audi, was one of the main shareholders of a startup that was at that time valued at €30 million became. Audi was strategic in sales and marketing of the hardware and software from the start integrated.
According to Terranet, Holoride management was in advanced negotiations with new financiers, but these were dragging on. Since Holoride's liquidity was not ensured as a result, there appeared to be no alternative to the insolvency proceedings that had been initiated. New owners and investors should now be found along this process; If this does not succeed, the company must be liquidated. Terranet wrote off the investment as of December 31, 2023.
It was not lost on attentive observers that the Holoride story had cracked by autumn 2023 at the latest: The gaps between new products, trade fairs and press events became larger – the last official announcement was from October 2023. Instead, the in-house cryptocurrency RIDE, which was intended to enable the trading of digital content and upgrades on blockchain marketplaces, became increasingly more important . But the RIDE exchange rate is in the meantime collapsed.
GamesWirtschaft has asked Holoride management and Audi AG for statements. This column from January 2024 also looked at the prospects for in-car entertainment.
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