Meural
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Technology |
| Founded | August 2014 |
| Founder | Vladimir Vukicevic, Jerry Hu |
| Headquarters | New York City , United States |
| Products | Meural Canvas (digital art frame) |
| Parent | Netgear (since 2018) |
Meural is a US-based technology firm that develops the Meural Canvas, a digitally connected frame intended for displaying artwork and photographs, including both licensed content from Meural and images uploaded by users. This digital frame integrates custom hardware, software, and firmware to present vivid, textured visuals with a lifelike appearance.
History
Vladimir Vukicevic and Jerry Hu, the company's co-founders, first connected at New York University. Vukicevic has a history as co-founder and CTO of RocketHub, a crowdfunding site later acquired by eFactor, and he currently serves on the Board of Directors for the New York Foundation for the Arts. Hu brings experience as a product manager at FreshDirect along with a background as an art docent.
Established in August 2014, Meural's mission was to enhance the discovery and expression of art. The initiative was nurtured within Con Artist, an art collective that offered early input from artists. The initial year concentrated on research and development efforts such as selecting LCD panels, implementing ambient light sensor-based brightness adjustment, developing gesture-based controls, and designing the physical frames.
Following the complete sale of their initial stock by late 2015, Meural commenced manufacturing a subsequent production run in mid-2016.
In 2018, during Netgear's analyst day event, Meural was acquired by the networking hardware company; however, the financial details of the transaction were not publicly revealed.
Funding
By March 2016, Meural had accumulated $695,000 from angel investors and venture capital funds including Bolt, Jeff Baltimore, and Jerry Colonna. Subsequently, in an April 2016 seed funding round, the company raised $2.45 million from investors such as Corigin Ventures, Barbara Corcoran Venture Partners, François-Henri Bennahmias of Audemars Piguet, Elio Leoni Sceti, and Bolt.
Technology
The Meural Canvas employs an in-plane switching (IPS) display capable of rendering over 16 million colors with a low-glare matte surface. It also incorporates an ambient light sensor that adjusts brightness according to surrounding lighting conditions. Users can switch images through the Meural mobile app, via the website my.meural.com, or by using gesture controls activated by simple hand movements.
Partnerships
Meural's artwork library boasts more than 20,000 images obtained through collaborations with various institutions, museums, and organizations including Sedition, Bridgeman Images, Eyes on Walls, Lomography, 1000 Museums, Con Artist, and Galleray.