Psychic VR Lab, the Japanese studio behind XR content creation app STYLY has announced the successful completion of a new funding round. The company managed to raise $8.5 million USD (¥900m JPY) from several key investors to help with its global expansion of the platform.
The round was led by KDDI Open Innovation Fund No. 3 (operated by Global Brain Co., Ltd.) and also featured DG Ventures Co., Ltd., DG Daiwa Ventures Co., Ltd., and DK Gate Co., Ltd. among others. This brings Psychic VR Lab’s total funding to approximately $18 million.
With the investment Psychic VR Lab will be expanding its team to help promote and commercialise STYLY. Thus bringing more creators onboard to showcase how the platform can be used for virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) content creation.
“The XR creative platform STYLY provided by Psychic VR Lab creates a high-quality XR space using only a web browser and enables instant distribution to devices such as smartphones, which will become the norm in the future. We expect that STYLY will become a driving force,” said Kazuhiko Chuman, General Manager of Business Incubation Development Department at KDDI CORPORATION in a statement. “In order to strengthen our products through joint commercialization of KDDI and the provision of 5G-related technology, we will work together to create a future in which XR will become commonplace.”
STYLY launched in 2017 as a web platform specifically tailored to VR experiences. A cloud-based solution, creators can use STYLY for any number of immersive projects which are promoted every year as part of the NEWVIEW Awards. Psychic VR Lab added AR support last summer, greatly expanding STYLY’s functionality.
“Psychic VR Lab is a top runner in the industry promoting the conversion of lifestyle interfaces to XR,” adds Masahiko Maekawa, DG Ventures Co., Ltd. Board Director. “In the XR industry, it seems that there were many hardware makers related to VR / AR, but it is impressive that Psychic VR Lab has developed an XR platform aiming for an OS in the XR era.
The company continues to expand its brand through various partnerships. Most recent of which was a collaboration with Nreal for the MR music exhibition, “AGARTHA,” at MWC Shanghai 2021. As STYLY continues its expansion, VRFocus will keep you updated.