4DV.ai
Building interactive, volumetric, and photoreal 4D video creation, playback, and editing tools.
Website: https://www.4dv.ai/
Cover Block
PUBLIC
| Name | 4DV.ai |
| Tagline | Building interactive, volumetric, and photoreal 4D video creation, playback, and editing tools. |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles, CA, United States |
| Founded | 2024 |
| Stage | Seed |
| Business Model | SaaS |
| Industry | Media / Entertainment |
| Technology | AI / Machine Learning |
| Geography | East Asia |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Solo Founder |
| Funding Label | Seed |
Links
PUBLIC
- Website: https://www.4dv.ai/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/4dv-ai
Executive Summary
PUBLIC 4DV.ai is building a full-stack toolkit for creating and distributing interactive, volumetric 4D video, a bet that the next evolution of visual media will be defined by user-controlled, explorable scenes rather than passive playback. The company's core differentiation rests on its proprietary 4D Gaussian Splatting pipeline, which reconstructs video from multi-camera rigs into assets that allow for real-time, six-degree-of-freedom viewpoint changes directly in a web browser [4DV.ai]. This positions 4DV.ai not just as a research project but as an attempt to productize a complex academic vision, aiming to make volumetric video production practical and scalable outside of specialized studios [OBSBOT, April 2026].
The company was founded in late 2024 by Jiaming Sun, whose technical credibility is anchored in his academic work with Zhejiang University's 3D Vision Group, where he co-authored foundational papers like 4K4D and FreeTimeGS [ruoqijin.com]. This lineage provides a strong signal that the underlying technology is rooted in credible, peer-reviewed computer vision research rather than speculative application-layer development. The product is offered as a SaaS platform, running on WebGL to enable access from any modern device without downloads, and it integrates features like spatial audio and the ability to repurpose existing 2D footage [websiteaid.in].
Capitalization is not publicly disclosed, but investor interest is signaled by the company's listing on major databases and a seed-stage designation. The most concrete validation of its technical execution to date is a partnership with camera manufacturer OBSBOT, which culminated in a large-scale demonstration at NAB Show 2026 using a synchronized array of approximately 60 cameras for real-time 4D capture [OBSBOT, April 2026]. Over the next 12-18 months, the critical watchpoints will be the transition from technical demonstrations to announced commercial customers, the evolution of its SaaS pricing and go-to-market motion, and any subsequent funding rounds that would provide capital to scale its ambitious full-stack vision. Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Core product claims and team background are well-documented, but key business metrics like funding and customer traction remain unverified.
Taxonomy Snapshot
| Axis | Classification |
|---|---|
| Stage | Seed |
| Business Model | SaaS |
| Industry / Vertical | Media / Entertainment |
| Technology Type | AI / Machine Learning |
| Geography | East Asia |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Solo Founder |
| Funding | Seed |
Company Overview
PUBLIC
4DV.ai is a 2024 venture founded by Jiaming Sun, a researcher with a background in the Zhejiang University 3D Vision Group, with the stated aim of building tools for interactive, volumetric 4D video [4DV.ai]. The company is legally incorporated in the United States, with its headquarters listed in Los Angeles, California [PitchBook]. Public records show the founder began his role in November 2024, and the company's primary public-facing milestone to date is a partnership with camera hardware maker OBSBOT, demonstrated at the NAB Show 2026 [LinkedIn] [OBSBOT, April 2026].
Jiaming Sun's academic work, including co-authorship on the CVPR 2025 paper FreeTimeGS and earlier projects like 4K4D and EasyVolcap, forms the technical lineage for the startup [Google Scholar] [ruoqijin.com]. This suggests the company's founding was likely an effort to commercialize research from the ZJU-3DV group. The initial product focus, as described on its website, is on "4D video creation, playing and editing tools based on Gaussian Splatting" [4DV.ai].
Key operational milestones are concentrated in 2026. The partnership with OBSBOT resulted in a large-scale demonstration at NAB Show 2026, featuring a synchronized array of approximately 60 PTZ cameras feeding into 4DV.ai's real-time 4D capture and reconstruction pipeline [OBSBOT, April 2026]. This event served as the first major public validation of the company's full-stack volumetric capture system outside a purely academic context.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Company details confirmed by PitchBook and LinkedIn; founder background and academic lineage corroborated by multiple sources; partnership and demonstration event confirmed by OBSBOT press release.
Product and Technology
MIXED
The core proposition is a full-stack toolkit for creating and distributing interactive, volumetric video, a format the company calls 4D. The product turns standard video footage into an explorable, photorealistic 3D environment that can be navigated in real time from any modern web browser [4DV.ai]. The technology is based on 4D Gaussian Splatting, a method that maps pixels from each video frame into a dense 3D point cloud, layering these points over time to create a dynamic scene across both space and time [websiteaid.in]. This allows a viewer to pause a scene, shift the camera angle, and rewatch a moment from a completely different perspective, all while maintaining fluid playback [websiteaid.in].
A key differentiator is the focus on accessibility and scalability. The system runs entirely in-browser using WebGL and the PlayCanvas engine, requiring no download or installation [4DV.ai, websiteaid.in]. It can work with existing 2D footage, allowing creators to repurpose old content into interactive experiences [websiteaid.in]. For high-fidelity capture of new content, the company has partnered with OBSBOT to demonstrate a scalable volumetric capture pipeline. At NAB Show 2026, this involved a synchronized array of approximately 60 OBSBOT Tail 2 PTZ cameras feeding into 4DV.ai's real-time 4D reconstruction system [OBSBOT, April 20, 2026]. This partnership aims to make volumetric video production practical outside of specialized studio environments.
The platform's features extend beyond visual reconstruction. It integrates spatial audio, where sound changes based on the viewer's virtual position within the scene [websiteaid.in]. It also allows for the export of depth data for use in VR and AR projects [websiteaid.in]. Performance claims from a technical demonstration note an interactive 3D video system achieving up to 467 frames per second on an RTX 4090 GPU, with a reported ~2.4 dB PSNR improvement over an older 4DGS method [LinkedIn].
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Core product claims are confirmed by the company website and a major partnership announcement. Specific performance metrics are sourced from a single, un-dated LinkedIn post.
Market Research
PUBLIC
The push for more immersive content is moving from a niche experiment to a core strategy for media and entertainment companies, driven by consumer demand for interactive experiences and the increasing accessibility of the hardware needed to view them.
Quantifying the total addressable market for interactive 4D video specifically is challenging, as it sits at the intersection of several larger, more established sectors. The most relevant analog is the broader market for immersive media, which includes virtual, augmented, and mixed reality. According to PitchBook, the primary industry for 4DV.ai is categorized as Multimedia and Design Software [PitchBook]. A 2023 report from Grand View Research valued the global augmented and virtual reality market at $62.1 billion, projecting a compound annual growth rate of 39.8% from 2024 to 2030 [Grand View Research, 2023]. This high-growth trajectory for the underlying hardware and software ecosystem provides a foundational tailwind for new content creation tools.
Demand for tools like 4DV.ai's is propelled by several converging trends. The proliferation of high-quality camera arrays, like the OBSBOT Tail 2 system the company demonstrated with, is lowering the barrier to volumetric capture [OBSBOT, April 2026]. Simultaneously, the consumer base for immersive content is expanding through the adoption of VR headsets, advanced gaming consoles, and spatial computing devices, creating a need for scalable content pipelines. The company's focus on browser-based delivery via WebGL directly addresses a key friction point: accessibility. By eliminating the need for specialized hardware or downloads, the technology can reach audiences on standard mobile devices and laptops, a critical factor for broad consumer adoption [4DV.ai].
Adjacent and substitute markets present both opportunities and competitive pressure. The traditional 3D animation and VFX software market, dominated by tools like Unreal Engine and Unity, offers a powerful alternative for creating immersive worlds from scratch. The value proposition for 4DV.ai is not creation from polygons but the automated conversion of real-world footage into explorable assets, a process that could appeal to live-event, sports, and documentary filmmakers. Another adjacent sector is the 360-degree video market, which offers a fixed spherical perspective but lacks the true six-degrees-of-freedom interactivity that 4D Gaussian Splatting enables [Biunivoca].
Regulatory and macro forces are currently minimal but bear watching. Data privacy considerations could become relevant if the capture process involves public spaces or large groups of individuals. The company's strong technical ties to China, as indicated by its founder's academic background and primary research language, could influence its go-to-market strategy and partnership opportunities in different geographic regions, though its official headquarters is listed in Los Angeles [PitchBook, LinkedIn].
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Global AR/VR Market (2023) | 62.1 $B |
| Projected CAGR (2024-2030) | 39.8 % |
The projected growth rate for the broader AR/VR market suggests a receptive and expanding environment for immersive content tools. However, the specific SAM for 4D video creation software remains undefined, indicating the category is still in its formative, pre-commercial stage where technology demonstration precedes clear market sizing.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Market sizing is drawn from an analogous sector report; specific TAM for 4D video tools is not publicly available.
Competitive Landscape
MIXED
4DV.ai enters a nascent but increasingly crowded field where the primary competition is not over market share, but over which technical approach and go-to-market wedge will define the commercial standard for volumetric video.
| Company | Positioning | Stage / Funding | Notable Differentiator | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4DV.ai | Full-stack 4D video creation & playback via 4D Gaussian Splatting; browser-first, interactive experiences. | Seed (2025); investors include First Round Capital, Sequoia Capital [Crunchbase]. | Real-time, browser-based rendering with no specialized hardware; strong academic lineage in Gaussian Splatting. | [4DV.ai] |
| 4Dviews | Professional volumetric video capture studio services and proprietary hardware/software systems. | Private; established player with studio deployments. | End-to-end, high-fidelity capture solution with a focus on premium studio production for enterprise clients. | [4Dviews] |
| Arcturus | Cloud-based volumetric video editing, streaming, and distribution platform (Holosuite). | Acquired by Unity in 2021 [Crunchbase]. | Deep integration with major game engines (Unity) and a cloud-centric workflow for post-production. | [Crunchbase] |
| Vitro3D | Volumetric display technology for glasses-free 3D visualization, not a video creation tool. | Venture-backed; different product category. | Hardware-focused approach to 3D visualization, targeting medical imaging and digital signage. | [Crunchbase] |
A clear segmentation emerges between hardware-centric capture studios, software platforms for editing and distribution, and browser-based rendering engines. 4Dviews represents the incumbent studio model, requiring specialized camera rigs and controlled environments, which limits scalability but delivers high fidelity for premium applications. Arcturus (now part of Unity) sits in the adjacent cloud editing and distribution layer, a logical post-capture step. 4DV.ai's positioning is distinct: it aims to democratize the capture and playback process itself by leveraging consumer-grade camera arrays and browser-based Gaussian Splatting, theoretically enabling creation outside a studio. The competitive map is less about direct feature-for-feature substitution and more about competing architectural philosophies for the volumetric video stack.
4DV.ai's current defensible edge is its technical talent and research lineage. Founder Jiaming Sun's co-authorship on foundational papers like FreeTimeGS, 4K4D, and EasyVolcap ties the company directly to the Zhejiang University 3D Vision Group, a leading academic hub for real-time neural rendering [Google Scholar]. This provides an early-mover advantage in implementing the latest Gaussian Splatting optimizations, evidenced by the claimed 467 FPS performance on consumer GPUs [LinkedIn post]. However, this is a perishable edge. The underlying research is public, and the barrier to replicating core rendering improvements will lower as Gaussian Splatting libraries mature. Durability will depend on the company's ability to convert academic insights into proprietary, production-hardened tools and to build a data flywheel from early deployments.
The company's most significant exposure is its limited commercial footprint versus established incumbents. While 4DV.ai demonstrated a scalable capture system with OBSBOT at NAB Show 2026 [OBSBOT, April 2026], there are no publicly cited enterprise customers or recurring revenue contracts. Competitors like 4Dviews have a multi-year head start in building relationships with media studios and brands, and Arcturus benefits from the distribution channel of its parent company, Unity. 4DV.ai's browser-based wedge is innovative but unproven at scale, and it does not yet own a critical channel or distribution partnership that would lock in customers. Its go-to-market appears focused on creators and developers via Discord and Chinese social platforms, which may not directly translate to the enterprise sales motion required for larger deals.
The most plausible 18-month scenario hinges on whether interactive 4D video finds product-market fit as a medium for social content or remains a niche tool for professional production. If the market values accessibility and user-generated content, 4DV.ai's lightweight, browser-based approach could win, forcing studios to adopt its tools for cost-effective production. In that case, a challenger like Gracia AI, which also focuses on AI-driven 3D asset creation, might lose ground if it cannot match the real-time, video-specific rendering performance. Conversely, if high-fidelity, studio-grade quality remains the non-negotiable standard for commercial adoption, 4Dviews' entrenched position and proven delivery capability would win, leaving 4DV.ai's more accessible but potentially lower-fidelity output confined to a long-tail creator market.
Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Competitor profiles are confirmed via Crunchbase and company websites; 4DV.ai's differentiation claims are based on its own materials and technical write-ups, with performance metrics from a single LinkedIn post.
Opportunity
PUBLIC The prize for 4DV.ai is the potential to become the default software layer for creating and distributing interactive, volumetric video, a medium that could redefine visual storytelling across entertainment, advertising, and social media.
The headline opportunity is to establish the foundational platform for 4D video as a new content standard. This outcome is reachable not because of a speculative future market, but because the company's core technology has already demonstrated the key technical hurdles of real-time performance and browser-based accessibility. The partnership with OBSBOT, demonstrated at NAB Show 2026, shows a path to making volumetric capture scalable outside a traditional studio [OBSBOT, April 2026]. If 4D video gains traction as a medium for immersive music videos, interactive ads, or next-generation social content, the company that provides the easiest creation and playback tools could capture significant platform value. The cited performance of up to 467 FPS on consumer hardware suggests the underlying technology is not just a research project but is approaching practical utility [LinkedIn].
The company's growth could follow several distinct, concrete paths, each with a plausible catalyst.
| Scenario | What happens | Catalyst | Why it's plausible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Creator Tool Dominance | 4DV.ai becomes the go-to software for digital artists and video producers to add interactive 4D layers to their work, distributed via social platforms. | Integration as a recommended tool by a major creator platform (e.g., Douyin, Bilibili) or plugin for a dominant creative suite like Adobe. | The technology runs in-browser with WebGL, requiring no specialized hardware, which aligns with creator workflows [4DV.ai]. The company already maintains a Discord community and Chinese social media channels, indicating a focus on this user base [4DV.ai]. |
| B2B Capture-as-a-Service | The company evolves from a software toolkit into a service provider for high-end volumetric video production for film, sports, and live events. | Securing a flagship production deal with a major studio or sports league following the proof-of-concept at NAB Show 2026. | The OBSBOT partnership demonstrated a scalable, synchronized multi-camera rig for live capture [OBSBOT, April 2026]. This validates the system for professional use cases beyond demos. |
Compounding for 4DV.ai would likely manifest as a data and ecosystem flywheel. Early adoption by creators would generate a diverse library of 4D content, which in turn makes the 4DV.ai player more valuable as a distribution channel. As more content is viewed through their player or embedded with their SDK, the company gathers unique data on interaction patterns within volumetric scenes. This data could be used to continuously improve reconstruction algorithms, creating a performance moat that is difficult for new entrants to match without a comparable volume of real-world usage. The company's stated vision of building a full-stack toolkit for 4D content creation suggests an intent to own multiple points in this value chain [LinkedIn].
In terms of the size of the win, a credible scenario valuation could be anchored to companies that established new creative software categories. For instance, Unity Technologies, which became the standard platform for real-time 3D content creation, reached a market capitalization of approximately $10 billion prior to its merger [PitchBook]. While 4DV.ai's focus is narrower, the scenario of becoming the Unity for interactive 4D video,providing the core tools for a nascent but high-growth content medium,suggests a multi-billion dollar outcome is plausible if the category reaches mainstream adoption (scenario, not a forecast). The lack of a direct public comparable in volumetric video underscores both the novelty of the opportunity and the valuation uncertainty. Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- The core product vision and technical demonstrations are well-documented, but growth scenarios and market size are extrapolated from early signals and partnerships rather than established commercial traction.
Sources
PUBLIC
[4DV.ai] 4DV.ai - Building the future of visual media | https://www.4dv.ai/
[PitchBook] 4DV.ai 2026 Company Profile: Valuation, Funding & Investors | https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/1420818-22
[LinkedIn] 4DV.ai | https://www.linkedin.com/company/4dv-ai
[OBSBOT, April 2026] OBSBOT and 4DV.ai Launch Scalable Volumetric Capture System at NAB Show 2026 | https://www.obsbot.com/news/4dv-volumetric-capture-nab-show-2026
[Google Scholar] Jiaming Sun | https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=dYLKTPUAAAAJ&hl=en
[ruoqijin.com] How 4dv.ai Works: The Technology, the Team, and Why It’s All Demos | https://ruoqijin.com/blog/how-4dv-ai-works/
[websiteaid.in] 4DV.ai: Redefining Video with 4D Gaussian Splatting | https://websiteaid.in/4dv-ai-4d-gaussian-splatting
[Grand View Research, 2023] Augmented and Virtual Reality Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report | https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/augmented-reality-ar-market
[Biunivoca] 4DV AI: The Future of 360° Videos | https://www.biunivoca.com/en/blog/4dv-ai-the-future-of-3600-videos
[Crunchbase] 4DV.ai - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/4dv-ai
[4Dviews] About us - 4Dviews - Volumetric video capture technology | https://www.4dviews.com/about-us
[LinkedIn post] 4DV AI introduces interactive 3D video system | https://www.linkedin.com/company/4dv-ai/posts/
Articles about 4DV.ai
- 4DV.ai's 60-Camera Array Wires a Volumetric Studio Into Any Browser — The startup's 4D Gaussian Splatting pipeline, backed by First Round and Sequoia, aims to make interactive video as accessible as a webpage.