Chaotic Moon Studios
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software development, mobile applications, design services |
| Founded | March 1, 2010 in Austin, Texas, United States |
| Founder | Ben Lamm, Mike Erwin, William Hurley (Whurley) |
| Fate | Acquired by Accenture in July 2015 |
| Headquarters | Austin , United States |
Area served | United States |
Key people | Dom Sagolla (Chief Product Officer, after acquisition of Dollar App) |
| Products | SmartestCart, Tech Tats, Fitcoin, Sentiri, Blue Eyes drone platform, Board of Awesomeness skateboard, Shark Punch VR game, Death From Above VR game |
| Parent | Accenture (since July 2015) |
Chaotic Moon Studios was a US-based creative technology firm focused on software development, mobile applications, and design services. Established in 2010 in Austin, Texas, the company grew to open an additional office in Dallas by 2015.
History
The company was founded in March 2010 by Ben Lamm, Mike Erwin, and William Hurley (Whurley). In 2012, Chaotic Moon introduced an R&D branch known as Chaotic Moon Labs, which later transformed into their innovation hub called BASE.
- March 2013 – The prominent Hollywood talent agency William Morris Endeavor, together with investment firm Silver Lake Partners, purchased a substantial ownership interest in Chaotic Moon Studios.
- July 2015 – Chaotic Moon was acquired by consulting and technology corporation Accenture to strengthen its offerings in interactive technologies, social media solutions, and artificial intelligence.
Software
Chaotic Moon provided services to leading organizations such as News Corp, Microsoft, Pizza Hut, Fox, CBS Sports, and Starbucks, among others spanning diverse sectors.
Their internal research and development team created pioneering products including SmartestCart, a technologically advanced shopping cart designed to help users manage grocery lists and streamline checkout; Tech Tats, which are biometric tattoos that enable data gathering and transmission through skin-mounted circuits; as well as fitness monitoring devices like Fitcoin that incentivize exercise with Bitcoin rewards and a wheelchair-compatible tracker that records terrain information. Additional innovations comprised Sentiri, a headband equipped with proximity sensors; Blue Eyes, a drone platform affixed to police vehicles for aerial surveillance; and the Board of Awesomeness, a motorized skateboard demonstrated at South by Southwest 2012 capable of reaching speeds up to 32 mph.
Games & Experiences
Chaotic Moon created several innovative virtual reality titles, including Shark Punch, which integrated the Leap Motion controller with the Oculus Rift to provide an immersive shark combat simulation. Another project, Death From Above, featured a two-player VR setup where one participant managed a driving game on a PC, while the other engaged interactively through an iPad in real time.
Acquisitions
Since its inception in 2010, Chaotic Moon Studios strategically expanded its portfolio through key acquisitions. In May 2012, the company acquired Dollar App, a mobile application developer based in San Francisco and founded by Dom Sagolla, who continued as chief product officer. Dollar App was recognized for developing Barack Obama’s official iPhone presidential campaign app and served as Chaotic Moon’s satellite office in the Bay Area. Later that year, Chaotic Moon also acquired Symbiot Security, co-founded by William Hurley, which specialized in cybersecurity services for governmental and corporate sectors.
In July 2015, Accenture acquired Chaotic Moon, bolstering its digital expertise and extending its global footprint.