The company was founded by Sascha Klement, Erhardt Barth, and Thomas Martinetz. Sascha Klement worked as a student assistant and Ph.D. student for the professors Thomas Martinetz and Erhardt Barth, who have been developing software solutions based on time-of-flight sensors at the
University of Lübeck since 2002. Together they founded Gestigon in 2011 with seed-funding from
High-Tech Gründerfonds, Mittelständische Beteiligungsgesellschaft Schleswig-Holstein and local business angels. In March 2012, Moritz von Grotthuss joined the company as advisor and later rose to CEO. In the same month, Gestigon was 1 of 15 companies that received an Innovation Award at
CeBIT 2012. In January 2013, Gestigon participated at
CES in
Las Vegas and, later that year, also at
TechCrunch Disrupt in
New York City. The next year
Visteon and
Volkswagen used Gestigon's gestures solutions in their products presented at
CES 2014. It won the
CeBIT Innovation Award again in 2014. Gestigon's technologies were included Audi at
CES 2015 and
CES 2016; Volkswagen and Infineon. Gestigon launched its Virtual Reality solution Carnival at the TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco in September 2015, using an Oculus Rift and different depth sensors. The first demo using a mobile device was done at the CES in 2015. In 2015, Gestigon partnered with Inuitive, a 3D computer vision and image processors developer, to create a VR unit. The system was presented at CES 2016 assembled on an
Oculus Rift development kit. In July 2015, Gestigon closed its Series A financing round from with nbr technology ventures GmbH as a primary investor headed by Fabian von Kuenheim and High-Tech Gründerfonds and Vorwerk Direct Selling Ventures. Fabian von Kuenheim became chairman of the advisory board which was also composed of the German entrepreneur Holger G. Weiss and the French investor Gunnar Graef. In March 2017, Gestigon was acquired by French automotive supplier,
Valeo. In March 2017, Gestion developed software that recognizes driving gestures. ==Products==