Pi Square

What Pi Square does

Pi Square is a Taipei-headquartered, Taiwan-domiciled software company founded in 2016 that develops PiStage, a real-time animation production platform designed to bridge Autodesk Maya — the dominant 3D authoring tool in film and animation — with Epic Games' Unreal Engine. PiStage is delivered as an integrated suite of sub-tools: PiCheck (asset compatibility checker), PiConvert (one-button asset converter), PiView (real-time viewport for Maya scenes rendered as Unreal levels), PiRender (frame-accurate render pass generator), and GeoLink (geometry-streaming technology that handles incompatible deformers by streaming geometry directly into Unreal). The architecture removes the manual hand-off between offline authoring and real-time rendering that has historically constrained adoption of game-engine workflows in animation, VFX, virtual production, and architecture visualization.

The company's commercial offering extends beyond the PiStage platform into professional services: virtual camera, real-time compositing, motion capture consulting, virtual production advisory, VR/AR content creation, and remote collaboration workflow design. Pi Square distributes through a hybrid model combining direct sales from its Beverly Hills office for the Americas and Europe with a regional reseller network covering Japan (ELSA JAPAN), Korea (Softemotion), Southeast Asia (OG Solutions), China and Taiwan (Axis3D), and the MENA region (MahmoudGFX). End customers include Dreamworks Animation, The Third Floor, Sony Interactive Entertainment, TVB, Moonshine Animation, TYLIN, TCImage3D, Interserv, and Creating Ideas, spanning enterprise film/VFX studios, broadcasters, and mid-market archviz and animation houses.

Revenue is generated through two annual subscription tiers — PiStage Standard (node-locked, small business and individual users) and PiStage Premium (floating license with gold support and consulting, enterprise) — supplemented by professional services revenue. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed. The company is privately held, reports 1-10 employees, and shows no disclosed external institutional investment beyond a 2019 entry tied to Startup Island TAIWAN. Product iteration is active, with PiStage 1.3 shipped in August 2019 alongside the GeoLink launch, PiStage 1.4 shipped in February 2020, and Unity engine support publicly announced in July 2019.

Name

Pi Square

Legal name

Pi Square Co. Ltd.

Website

https://pisquare.com.tw

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Pi Square develops PiStage, a real-time animation production platform bridging Autodesk Maya and Unreal Engine for film, VFX, animation, virtual production, and archviz studios. The Taipei-based company sells subscription software and professional services globally through direct sales and regional resellers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Real-time Animation Production Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (51321), Postproduction Services and Other Motion Picture and Video Industries (51219)

SIC

Services-Allied To Motion Picture Production (7819)

akta.pro primary industry

Animation Pipeline, Asset & Render Services (MPADACAM)

akta.pro secondary industries

Animation Services for VFX (Creature/Character, Crowd, Simulation Support) (MPADAHAF), Immersive/Interactive Animation (AR/VR/Real-Time) (MPAHACAN)

Keywords

• Real-time animation software
• Virtual production tools
• Maya Unreal integration
• 3D rendering pipeline
• Animation production software

Headquarters

HQ city

Taipei

HQ country

Taiwan

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. PiStage Standard Subscription: Node-locked license with full feature set, free upgrades, and basic tech support via forum and email. Targets small business and personal users.
2. PiStage Premium Subscription: Floating license with gold tech support including Skype and remote desktop. Targets enterprise users with consulting and customization services available.
3. Consulting and Professional Services: Customization and consulting services for enterprise implementations, virtual production setups, and specialized workflow integrations.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels8 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

Pi Square develops PiStage, a real-time animation production platform that connects Maya (the authoring environment) to Unreal Engine (the game engine) so artists can preview, light, and render in real time without a traditional render farm. The platform bundles asset compatibility checking (PiCheck), one-button conversion (PiConvert), live multi-user viewport (PiView), frame-accurate rendering (PiRender), and geometry streaming for incompatible deformers (GeoLink). The company also offers professional services including virtual production consulting, motion capture, real-time compositing, virtual camera, and VR/AR content creation.

Product overview

Pi Square offers PiStage, a real-time animation production platform that bridges Maya and Unreal Engine. The core PiStage product suite includes sub-modules: PiCheck (asset compatibility), PiConvert (one-button conversion), PiView (real-time viewport), PiRender (frame-accurate rendering), and GeoLink (geometry streaming for incompatible deformers). The platform operates on a trans-media workflow, enabling assets created in Maya to be instantly viewed, lit, and rendered in Unreal Engine. Pi Square also provides professional services including virtual camera, motion capture, real-time compositing, virtual production consulting, and VR/AR content creation. The company has announced upcoming Unity support alongside existing Unreal Engine integration.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• PiStage: Real-time animation production platform enabling Maya to Unreal workflow with tools like PiCheck, PiConvert, PiView, PiRender, and GeoLink
• PiStage Premium
• PiStage Standard

Products and services

• PiStage A real-time animation production platform that connects the Maya authoring environment to the Unreal Engine game engine, providing real-time viewport, asset conversion, asset compatibility checking, frame-accurate rendering, and multiplayer collaboration. Designed for animation studios, VFX studios, game studios, virtual production teams, and architecture visualization firms that already author in Maya.
• PiCam (Virtual Camera Service) A virtual camera service for shooting virtual worlds or recording camera and set data in real time on physical sets, delivered as part of Pi Square's professional services portfolio for virtual production engagements.
• Real-time Rendering Service Professional service that uses real-time engines to render elements or final frames with multiple passes and full alpha output, for clients needing Pi Square to deliver rendered content directly rather than license the software.
• Motion Capture Consulting Consulting service covering motion capture systems ranging from large-scale feature films to small indie projects, delivered by Pi Square's pipeline specialists.
• Real-time Compositing Service Service that performs real-time tracking, keying, and compositing of CG over live-action sets or green-screen actors over CG environments, executed by Pi Square for production clients.
• Virtual Production Consulting Consulting and execution service for film and TV productions using real-time rendering for on-set visualization, LED wall filming, and live compositing.
• Transmedia Workflow Service Professional service that delivers automated asset conversion and version tracking so assets can flow across multiple deliverables and project types, exploiting Pi Square's trans-media workflow expertise.
• Remote Collaboration Service Service that lets geographically distributed artists collaborate in real time on the same Unreal level while working in Maya, using Pi Square's multiplayer access capabilities.
• VR/AR Content Creation Service Service that produces virtual reality and augmented reality experiences and content for headset-based audiences, leveraging Pi Square's real-time pipeline.

Quantifiable outcome

• 300% improvement in working efficiency for digital lighting artist (per testimonial)
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

Feature9 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Sony Interactive EntertainmentcoreTechnology or IntegrationCustomer and technology partner using PiStage for real-time visualization and production workflows
• The Third FloorcoreTechnology or IntegrationVisualization studio using PiStage for virtual production technical direction
• ELSA JAPANcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorExclusive reseller for Japan market distributing PiStage software
• SoftemotionminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorReseller partner for Korea market
• OG SolutionsminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorReseller partner covering Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia
• MahmoudGFXminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorReseller partner covering MENA region including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, and Turkey
• 愛迪斯科技 (Axis3D Taiwan)minorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorTaiwan reseller distributor for PiStage
• 爱迪斯通科技 (Axis3D China)minorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorChina reseller distributor for PiStage
• Infinity VenturesminorGTM or Marketing PartnerStartup accelerator participant; presented at Infinity Ventures Launch Pad Summit

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• The Foundry: The Foundry sells Nuke, Katana, and Mari to VFX and animation studios and invests in real-time engine integration workflows, making it a broad incumbent peer competing for postproduction pipeline budget.
• NVIDIA (Omniverse): NVIDIA Omniverse is a real-time 3D collaboration platform targeting animation, virtual production, and archviz — overlapping directly with PiStage's real-time collaboration and transmedia workflow features, but at much broader scale and with a significantly different technology stack.
• SideFX (Houdini): SideFX provides Houdini, the dominant VFX/animation pipeline tool used by the same studio customers PiSquare serves. It addresses overlapping problems (asset pipeline, simulation, batching) and competes for the same budget allocations at studios.
• Autodesk: Autodesk owns Maya, the upstream authoring environment PiStage plugs into, plus Bifrost and growing native real-time engine integration tools. Same customer set (animation, VFX studios); broad incumbent that could conceivably internalize PiSquare's bridging functionality.
• Epic Games: Epic owns Unreal Engine, the rendering target PiStage bridges to, and ships Maya Live Link for native Maya-Unreal workflows. This is the closest broad incumbent competing in the same real-time animation pipeline category, from a position of platform ownership.
• Unity Technologies: Unity is the second game engine PiSquare announced support for and competes for the same animation/game studio tooling budget. Unity's increasingly animation-centric editor and rendering roadmap make it a direct engine-side peer once PiStage launches Unity support.

Regional players

• Reallusion: Taiwan-based peer (former employer of PiSquare's Chief Technical Artist) selling character animation and avatar tools (iClone, Character Creator) to similar studio/individual users in Asia. Comparable regional animation tooling vendor.

Emerging players

• Wonder Dynamics: Emerging AI-driven animation and VFX pipeline company (Autodesk-acquired) serving similar film/animation customers. Partial overlap with PiStage's vision of automating asset conversion and real-time character work, though via AI rather than game-engine bridging.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/pisquareus
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UC4nslOSdFso-Kc2Lf6Zd7RA
• Facebookfacebook.com/pisquareus
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/pi-square-co.-ltd.
• Instagraminstagram.com/pisquare_presents_pistage

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Pi Square