On a Scandinavian winter afternoon, we meet two of the co-founders behind Zero Parallax; Gajane and Vygantas Kirejevas. They speak calmly, almost casually, about a problem engineers have declared unsolvable.
“We started our business ventures nine years ago,” Vygantas says. “It all began with a specific optical problem.”
It was not a small one.
When VR Promised the Future, But Reality Didn’t Cooperate
Around the time Facebook invested heavily in Oculus, virtual reality was poised to explode. Investors predicted a multibillion-dollar industry. Sports, journalism, entertainment; everything was about to become immersive.
“There was a huge expectation that VR would take off,” Vygantas recalls.
But there was a catch.
Capturing live VR footage required multiple cameras filming the same scene. To create a seamless 360-degree experience, every frame had to be stitched together; manually, frame by frame.
“It is highly inefficient, labor-intensive and capital-intensive,” Vygantas explains. “Unsustainable.”
The root of the problem was something deceptively simple: parallax.
When multiple lenses capture the same scene from slightly different positions, the images don’t perfectly align. In photography, this can be manageable. In VR, it becomes extremely challenging.
“Putting frames together is easy in photography,” Gajane says. ” But in VR, it becomes a technically complex and painstaking process.”
The industry was trying to fix it with computing power and complex algorithms. But the real bottleneck wasn’t software. It was optics.
“We realized parallax was the big blocker,” says Vygantas. “So, we decided to solve it.”
From Biotech to Film Rigs to Stanford
The journey into VR was not linear. Vygantas had previously founded a biotech company, still operating today, but left when it became too corporate. He pivoted into documentary filmmaking instead.
“A request came in”, says Vygantas, “produce a 360-degree film. “Sure”, we said”.
They began rigging multiple cameras together, only to quickly understand the scale of the stitching problem. Real-time processing? Out of reach.
“You either need extremely powerful computing, clever algorithms, or something else,” Vygantas says.
That “something else” became his obsession.
Their exploration took them to Palo Alto and Stanford, where they met sports executives and technology leaders.
“We discussed immersive broadcasting for basketball and hockey. We spoke with Hollywood studios curious about next-generation optics.”
Everywhere they turned, people were hiring teams of editors to stitch footage together.
“To us, that felt like a cul-de-sac,” Gajane says. “Not the way forward.”
The solution had to start with physics.
“Eliminating Parallax Is Impossible”
Neither Gajane nor Vygantas were trained optics designers. But Vygantas became obsessed with the optics and resolving the parallax.
“We developed a concept; a new way of thinking about how multiple lenses could function as one.”
Together with their third co-founder Edmundas Balciunas, with the background in signal processing and electronics, they began searching for someone who could turn theory into glass.
“For six months we looked for an optics designer,” Vygantas says. “And all we heard was that eliminating parallax is not possible.”
Eventually, they tracked down a legendary optics consultant in Germany, one of the few in the world capable of even entertaining such an idea.
“We called him and explained what we wanted to do,” Vygantas says. “He was not convinced.”
It took three months to bring him onboard and he became one of the company’s partners.
“He had finally understood what it was about,” Gajane says. “A new way of doing optics.”
Searching for a Scalable Model
With breakthrough optics in hand, the next challenge was business.
They collaborated with Scandinavian broadcasters — SVT, NRK, BBC — producing VR journalism. They got interest from Hollywood studios, they even secured interest from a Hollywood rental house and explored underwater cultural heritage projects and presented solutions at UNESCO in Paris.
But something was missing.
“We only had hardware,” Vygantas says. “That was a limitation.”
The breakthrough came when they shifted focus from entertainment to industry.
A Japanese conglomerate approached them for marine applications, mounting advanced vision systems on massive vessels. Industrial use cases opened new doors.
Still, the founders had a bigger ambition.
“We always dreamed of combining hardware with software,” Vygantas says. “Building a full stack; turning it into a platform.”
A New Vision for the Energy Grid
In September 2024, that vision became reality.
Zero Parallax released its first full-stack solution for the energy sector: a thermal camera system powered by their own optics, integrated with edge computing and AI-driven analytics.
The first application? Electrical substations.
Mounted above hundreds of assets, a single device captures vast thermal landscapes in real time. It tracks temperature behavior over time, detects anomalies and generates maintenance recommendations before failures occur.
“It is like a health tracker for the grid,” Gajane explains.
Unlike traditional inspections, periodic and reactive, their system continuously monitors trends. It does not just detect faults, but symptoms.
“We collect large amounts of thermal data and track behavior,” Vygantas says. “We find anomalies early.”
The timing could not be more critical.
As green energy production accelerates, utility companies face a new challenge: integrating decentralized energy sources without compromising grid resilience.
“There is enough green energy,” Vygantas says. “The challenge is how to integrate it.”
Zero Parallax addresses exactly that; increasing grid capacity through better visibility and predictive intelligence.
From Cold Calls to Global Utilities
In early 2025, with their solution ready, the team began cold-calling utility companies.
“We thought it would be hard”, Vygantas admits. “But it was the opposite.”
Utilities were surprisingly receptive. Many had already structured dedicated startup pilot programs with simplified contracts and separate innovation budgets.
“They know they have to adapt,” Gajane says. “And they are evaluating new technologies in a structured way.”
A major validation came when Zero Parallax was selected for the Free Electrons program, a prestigious global energy accelerator. Out of 877 applicants, they made the final list.
“For us, that was huge,” says Vygantas. “It proved there is real demand.”
Today, the six-person team is running multiple pilots across Europe with more pending.
“It is a good problem to have,” Gajane smiles. “We love this market.”
In Åre and Skåne
The company was established in Åre, supported by Mid Sweden Science Park and angel investors from Sweden and Lithuania.
“Åre gave us infrastructure, networks and attention,” Vygantas says. “It is a good place to build.”
But growth also demands proximity.
Now with presence also in Skåne closer to industrial partners and energy clients, Zero Parallax is positioning itself at the center of Europe’s energy transition.
“Being here means being in a real environment,” Gajane says. “Close to customers and closer to the industry.”
Nine years after deciding to solve an “impossible” optical problem, the team who set out to fix VR stitching are now helping stabilize national power grids.
The company’s name, once rooted in virtual reality, has become something broader; a philosophy.
See clearly. Remove distortion. Fix the problem at its source.
