Why you should be excited about investing in virtual reality now!
Our exclusive report brings you the latest breakthroughs, important companies and investment roundups on VR
VCs strap on their headsets and hunt for opportunities and potential in the AR/VR entertainment landscape. Sunny Dhillon, a founding partner at Signia Venture Partners, shares his experience on virtual reality investments as a fanboy, consumer and investor. (Read more)
VR/AR INVESTMENT ROUNDUP
December 2016
- Virtual reality startups raise over $80 million in a week:
VR game maker Survios announced to raise $50 million dollars in a pair of rounds. — Social VR company High Fidelity has raised $22 million. — Virtual reality sports training company STRIVR Labs Inc. raised $5 million. — 3D live streaming company Boom raises $3.5 million in a seed round. — Seattle based VR game studio Drifter Entertainment, raised $2.25 million to develop competitive multiplayer virtual reality games. San Francisco based Loom.ai has raised $1.35 million in seed funding. (Read more)
- Facebook Inc.’s Oculus has acquired The Eye Tribe, a company that tracks eye movement in virtual reality to improve the experience. Oculus confirmed the acquisition of the Copenhagen-based startup, without stating a price. (Read more)
- Augmented reality wearable display producer Lumus, completed $45 million investment in a Series C round. Lumus makes the optical engine to empower augmented reality solutions. The company is working on optical technology for see-through wearable displays. (Read more)
- Visbit has raised $3.2 million for a new virtual reality (VR) and 360-degree video streaming service for mobile devices. (Read more)
- Virtual reality haptics technology company AxonVR, secured $5.8 million in a recently-completed seed funding round. AxonVR is the creator of the HaptX Platform, that allows users to feel virtual objects. (Read more)
- Augmented reality glass maker raises ODG $58 million in Series A funding. The funding round is registered as one of the largest Series A in wearables, augmented and virtual reality sectors. (Read more)
HIGHLIGHTS FROM CES 2017
- HTC’s Viveport announced at CES that it is expanding services for enterprise VR customers and arcade operators by launching dedicated VR app stores for professionals in 2017. (Read more)
- Augmented reality smartglass manufacturer ODG debuted two new devices; R-8 and R9 glasses powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processors. The R-9 model is mainly designed for enterprise uses. The company is planning to offer this model as a development platform for sophisticated mobile AR/VR and smartglasses applications. (Read more)
- Australian startup ‘Immersive Robotics’ is featuring a wireless system for VR headsets at CES 2017. The company claims 1 ms latency, that works over existing WiFi standards. (Read more)
- Japanese firm Xenoma, debuted its smart shirt e-skin, that can capture body movement to create virtual characters for VR games or personalized fitness and healthcare applications. (Read more)
LATEST NEWS
- New York City Economic Development Corporation and the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment announced to invest $6 million into a virtual and augmented reality lab. The lab will support growth-stage VR/AR companies, entrepreneurs, and the academic community as an incubator. (Read more)
- Virtual reality industry leaders are joining their forces to build new standards, to avoid defragmentation and to help accelerate the adoption of VR technologies. (Read more)
- Brendan Iribe, who cofounded Oculus with Palmer Luckey in 2012, announced in a blog post that he is stepping down from his role as CEO to lead one of two new Oculus divisions. Iribe said Oculus will be divided into PC and mobile virtual reality (VR) groups. (Read more)
RESEARCH AND SURVEY
- According to Consumer Technology Association (CTA), virtual reality headset unit sales are projected to reach 2.5 million units this year, 79% up from 2016, to drive $660 million in revenues with 43 percent increase. (Read more)
VR/AR FUNDS TO WATCH OUT
- The VR Fund: Founded by Marco DeMiroz, Hironao Kunimitsu and Tipatat Chennavasin (tipatat)
- VRVCA: Formed in 2016, the VRVCA is a close-knit membership comprised of 42 of the top Virtual Reality Investors in the world.
- Signia Venture Partners: Founded in 2012 by Rick Thompson the fund is focused on seed through Series A stage deals.
TOP VR/AR STOCKS TO CHECK
- Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) owns Oculus Rift.
- Sony (NYSE:SNE) launched PlayStation VR.
- AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) chipmaker for VR products.
- Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) chipmaker for VR headsets, partnering with HTC Vive to build wireless VR hardware.
- Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) chipmaker for VR products.
- Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Launched Daydream View mobile VR headsets.
Thank you for supporting Haptical and being our member. If you like what you are reading please recommend us to your friends.
