A Salford motion capture startup has been bought by Oxford Metrics plc.
Captive Devices was founded in 2024 by a trio of former Epic Games engineers – including Fred Isaac (pictured) – and received support from GM Business Growth Hub’s Innovation Service in securing innovation grants.
A developer of professional head-mounted camera systems and software, it enables markerless facial performance capture, used in visual effects, games and virtual production.
Oxford Metrics is a smart sensing and measurement technology group serving life sciences, entertainment, engineering and manufacturing markets.
The acquisition adds specialist facial capture to its platform Vicon, which has an established market leadership in body tracking.
Captive Devices’ first product was CoreHMC, a head-mounted camera facial motion capture system. The technology captures real human facial expressions and translates them into digital animation data, without the cost or complexity typically associated with bespoke setups.
Instead of complicated tailored camera rigs, with custom software builds, time-intensive installation and ongoing technical support, the Captive Devices concept works straight out of the box.
Its founding team – who designed and built similar systems prior to founding the business – will be joining Vicon. The startup reported unaudited revenue of £500,000 in the year ended 30th April 2026.
Captive Devices’ entire issued share capital is being acquired by the group from Greyhound Industry Ltd, EEInsights Ltd and Periscope Technical Ltd with no debt assumed as part of the transaction.
Total consideration for the acquisition is up to £750,000. It comprises of a cash payment of £250,000, issue of Oxford Metrics plc ordinary shares with an aggregate value of £300,000 – allotted quarterly over 24 months – and an earnout of up to £200,000 in cash contingent upon gross profit performance on sales of the facial performance capture system.
Imogen O’Connor, CEO of Oxford Metrics, said: “This is exactly the kind of targeted investment we want to make in Vicon – adding differentiated technology and specialist expertise in an area that builds directly on our existing strengths.
“Captive Devices extends our capabilities from body tracking into facial performance capture and gives us the opportunity to take proven technology to a much broader global customer base. It broadens what Vicon can offer customers today and supports the continued development of the platform we are building for the future.”