Pi Square
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.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2016
- HeadquartersTaipei, Taiwan
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
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.
Pi Square firmographics
Firmographics- 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
Pi Square industry classification
Industry- 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
Where Pi Square is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Taipei
- HQ country
- Taiwan
- HQ region
- Asia
Offices1 record
Markets served
Pi Square business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Others
Revenue model
- 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.
- PiStage Premium Subscription: Floating license with gold tech support including Skype and remote desktop. Targets enterprise users with consulting and customization services available.
- Consulting and Professional Services: Customization and consulting services for enterprise implementations, virtual production setups, and specialized workflow integrations.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Annual | PiStage Standard - Best for Small Business/Personal Use |
| Subscription | Annual | PiStage Premium - Best for Enterprise Use |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels8 records
Marketing channels9 records
Pi Square product offering
Product offeringCore 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
Companies that use Pi Square
Customer profileNamed customers8 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Pi Square technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration3 records
Feature9 records
Pi Square partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Sony Interactive EntertainmentcoreCustomer and technology partner using PiStage for real-time visualization and production workflows
- The Third FloorcoreVisualization studio using PiStage for virtual production technical direction
- ELSA JAPANcoreExclusive reseller for Japan market distributing PiStage software
- SoftemotionminorReseller partner for Korea market
- OG SolutionsminorReseller partner covering Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia
- MahmoudGFXminorReseller partner covering MENA region including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, and Turkey
- 愛迪斯科技 (Axis3D Taiwan)minorTaiwan reseller distributor for PiStage
- 爱迪斯通科技 (Axis3D China)minorChina reseller distributor for PiStage
- Infinity VenturesminorStartup accelerator participant; presented at Infinity Ventures Launch Pad Summit
Scale indicators2 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights4 records
Pi Square competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad 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
Pi Square social profiles
Digital presencePi Square financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Pi Square leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles8 records
Pi Square funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors1 record
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Pi Square M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Pi Square
What does Pi Square do?
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.
Is Pi Square a public or private company?
Pi Square is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Pi Square founded?
Pi Square was founded in 2016. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Pi Square based?
Pi Square is headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, in the Asia region.
How does Pi Square make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. PiStage Standard Subscription is the primary driver. The others are piStage Premium Subscription and consulting and Professional Services.
Who are Pi Square's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are The Foundry, NVIDIA (Omniverse), SideFX (Houdini), Autodesk, Epic Games and Unity Technologies. Reallusion is listed as a regional player. Wonder Dynamics is listed as an emerging player.
Does Pi Square have an API?
No public API is recorded for Pi Square.
What industry is Pi Square in?
Pi Square's product category is Real-time Animation Production Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is MPADACAM, Animation Pipeline, Asset & Render Services, with a secondary code of MPADAHAF, Animation Services for VFX (Creature/Character, Crowd, Simulation Support). Its NAICS code is 51321 and its SIC code is 7819.