The virtual reality (VR) industry has grown at a rapid rate around the world, with new studios, manufacturers and agencies all utilising the technology for a myriad of different uses. Today the Venture Reality Fund (The VR Fund), based in Silicon Valley, has released its first-ever look at the European VR landscape, highlighting dozens of companies working in this immersive field.
Created in partnership with LucidWeb, a French VR and WebVR consulting and development agency, the landscape map features those firms who are developing infrastructure, tools/platforms and/or apps for VR. Through extensive research LucidWeb and The VR Fund identified and reviewed almost 300 VR startups, selecting 116 to be part of this first release.
“We chose to partner with LucidWeb as they have a strong database of top VR startups in Europe and valuable familiarity with the European ecosystem,” says Tipatat Chennavasin, co-founder and general partner at The Venture Reality Fund. “These landscapes are a visual representation of our commitment to education and growth of the industry.”
The Landscape shows that more than half of the companies are based in United Kingdom, France, Germany and Sweden, while the VR gaming industry remains the most competitive space with well-funded companies including CCP Games (Iceland), nDreams (UK), Resolution Games (Sweden) and Solfar Studios (Iceland).
“The VR industry is booming and not just in the US or Asia. The old continent has known a slower start, but definitely got up to speed during the past two years,” says Leen Segers, co-founder and CEO at LucidWeb. “The VR gaming segment remains the most competitive space, but is surely challenged by a large number of companies focusing on user input or 3D tools. We feel very excited for the future as we see local and international investors are clearly investing in these segments, too.”
While this is the first European focused industry landscape The VR Fund has produced, it does release VR and AR landscapes every quarter, all of which can be found on its website.
For the latest announcements from The VR Fund, keep reading VRFocus.