Blue Vision Labs Inc. today exited stealth mode to tackle what it sees as a major barrier to widespread augmented reality adoption: Most AR applications don’t allow users to share virtual experiences with others.

Along with the launch, the London-based startup announced that it has closed a $14.5 million Series A funding round led by GV, Alphabet Inc.’s venture capital arm. The investment also saw the participation of several returning investors, including Accel.

Blue Vision will use the capital to drive the adoption of its AR Cloud, a platform aimed at enabling developers to infuse a collaborative element into their augmented reality applications. At its core is a mapping engine that the startup said can store highly detailed views of both outdoor and indoor locations. Apps that rely on AR Cloud can overlay their custom content on the maps, which the platform then syncs across user devices.

A hypothetical restaurant review application might let consumers place comments next to businesses and harness Blue Vision’s service to make them viewable for every user who passes a tagged location. Game developers, in turn, could employ the platform to enable multiplayer interactions. The startup sees AR Cloud enabling entirely new types of apps, such as a service that gives users directions to where their Uber driver is parked.

This is made possible by a homegrown location system that relies on footage from participants’ mobile cameras. According to Blue Vision, AR Cloud is capable of determining a user’s position with better accuracy than GPS.

The service can be integrated into an app with a software development kit that the startup is initially offering for free. Blue Vision says that AR Cloud currently provides prebuilt maps covering the city centers of London, San Francisco and New York, with more locations set to be added over time. The startup also intends to invest the new funding in expanding its team.

The fact that GV led the round is the latest reminder of Alphabet’s keen interest in mobile AR. Its investment comes just a day after the release for new new programming interfaces for Google Maps that aim to help game developers build better virtual environments.

Image: Blue Vision