Pimax might not be as big a name in virtual reality (VR) hardware as others but the company has continually strived to make its consumer headsets standout with features like wide FoV’s and increased resolutions. Helping continue that development, the company has announced a successful Series B funding round to the tune of $20 million USD.
Having previously held a Series Pre-A round back in 2016, followed by a Series-A round in 2018, Pimax also held a successful Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign in 2017, achieving over $4 million. These have led to several headset designs with five currently available of the website, from the entry-level Artisan all the way up to the Vision 8K X.
The new investment from the likes of Shanghai-based Ivy Capital and CDF-Capital in Shenzhen will help Pimax continue to make advancements in VR, with the company noting in a press release that it was able to: “improve the entire product line and even expand mass production volumes.”
“We are different from other competitive players in this industry because we started with VR and VR is all that we do,” said Pimax Founder Robin Weng in a statement. ““Pimax products are just like a kid who experiences surprises and excitement, faces challenges, makes mistakes, gets criticized, learns lessons and receives love and support. We have acquired a great deal of experience and that is the fuel for this new investment. Alongside this investment we have arrived at a new strategic layout for moving into the future.”
Currently, the base Artisan model retails for €449 EUR, offering a wide 140-degree field of view (FoV) – most consumer headsets tend to be around 110-degree’s – with a resolution of 1700 x 1440 per eye. While the Vision 8K X boasts dual native 4K resolution screens and a 200-degree FoV for €1,199. All of Pimax’s headsets support SteamVR tracking as well as Valve Index controllers which those prices do not include.
“In the time leading up to this new investment resources were more limited and unfortunately, we had to tackle issues sequentially and this increased the time required for solutions to be identified and implemented. This had the most profound effects in departments such as logistics and technical support,” Weng continued. “With the additional resources and the solid revenues we are experiencing, we can address issues and complete projects in parallel with considerably greater speed and efficiency. Other ongoing improvements are within other teams for personnel and equipment that include R&D, engineering and manufacturing capabilities. Of course, customer satisfaction is our number one priority so above all else we are focusing our efforts with our support, logistics and warehousing teams to ensure our most important resource – our customers – are always taken care of.”
For further updates on Pimax developments, keep reading VRFocus.
