Lytro, the US-based light field camera company, says it has raised an additional $50 million in a Series C funding round and will use the money to make a strategic change into video and virtual reality. The company’s CEO Jason Rosenthal said that the change in direction would result in the loss of 25-50 jobs, though Lytro will also seek to hire new staff with video and virtual reality experience.
Lytro released its Illum light field camera, which allows users to take photos carelessly and focus them later, in 2012. Rosenthal described light field as ‘the perfect solution’ for capturing imagery which is intended for use in virtual reality displays. However, the company says it is not abandoning still photography completely and will release a “third-generation, higher-resolution camera technology” later this year.
