The Venture Reality Fund – Page 2 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

November 29, 2017

The VR Fund Report Shows High Growth in VR Entertainment

The Venture Reality Fund, also known as the VR Fund, is one of the most prominent venture capital firms working in virtual reality (VR) and other immersive media industries. The company has just released its latest report detailing the state of the VR industry over the second half of 2017.

The new report shows that over 450 companies are engaged with developing infrastructure, tools, platforms and applications for VR and other immersive technologies. The VR Fund shows that overall, the VR industry is seeing continued growth and increased investment.

The report shows that the two areas to see the most substantial growth are the Entertainment and Enterprise areas, with apps and content for Entertainment seeing a 79% growth, and the Enterprise sector seeing 69% growth. Also seeing significant growth are apps and tools for reality capture (56%) and infrastructure for high-end head-mounted displays (47%). The Gaming category grew by 40%, a figure that matches those reported by Oculus, Steam VR and PlayStation VR. VR videogames are indicated by the report to have generated over $1 million (USD) in revenue, a figure that VR Fund says indicates a healthy ecosystem for this early stage of VR industry development.

“Already topping $2.3B this year, global investment in VR and AR is tracking higher than any previous period, and at a more accelerated pace,” said Tipatat Chennavasin, co-founder and general partner at The VR Fund. “The VR industry is healthy and growing steadily and we are seeing increased investor interest from traditional venture funds and new VR and AR focused funds alike.”

The VR Fund report also found that several Hollywood companies such as AMC, Disney, DreamWorks Animation, Netflix, Sony Pictures and Viacom have all been involved with developing new VR experiences, often to tie in to existing properties and franchises, such as Star Wars.

Other trends noted by the report shows that due to increases in technological capability, investment is largely moving away from 360-degree video and towards true immersive VR.

You can find out more at The VR Fund’s website. VRFocus will continue to report on new trends within the VR industry.

September 29, 2017

Varjo Raises $8.2M Investment to Further Develop “Human Eye-resolution” Headsets

Varjo Technologies, a Helsinki-based startup known for its ‘human eye-resolution’ display intended for VR headets, today announced it’s closed an $8.2M Series A funding round that aims to support the upcoming launch of Varjo-branded enterprise VR/AR/XR products.

The Series A was lead by European venture capital fund EQT Ventures Fund, followed by Lifeline Ventures Fund III, The Venture Reality Fund, private investor John Lindfors, Foobar Technologies, Presence Capital Fund I, Bragiel Bros I, and Sisu Game Ventures.

With its eye on producing its own enterprise-facing headsets housing what Varjo calls a ‘Bionic’ display, the company says a Varjo-branded VR/AR/XR products will begin shipping to professional users in late Q4, 2017.

comparison showing standard VR headset display next to Varjo’s 20/20 prototype, image courtesy Varjo

“Varjo is fast growing from a startup to a best-in-class global supplier of VR/AR headsets,” said Urho Konttori, CEO and founder of Varjo Technologies. “We are now moving past research into the development stage and are so glad to achieve this in collaboration with EQT Ventures. We clicked the moment we met with them – the team literally started on go-to-market strategy during our first meeting. With EQT Ventures, we not only have a VC, but a true partner in growth.”

Varjo calls their prototype “20|20”, saying that it’s specifically designed for professional users and with resolutions more than 70 times beyond any currently shipping or announced head-mounted display.

Varjo’s prototype hiding inside of an Oculus Rift, image courtesy Ubergizmo

Tech Crunch got a hands-on with an early demo of Varjoi’s tech back in June, which packed a pair of high-resolution Sony MicroOLED displays measuring 0.7 inches diagonally, boasting 3,000 pixels per inch (PPI). As a significant jump from Oculus Rift of HTC Vive‘s 447-461 PPI, the chief complaint with these microdisplays is they typically don’t provide an acceptable field of view (FOV) for the purposes of VR, but Varjo says their upcoming VR headset will ultimately deliver an 100 degree FOV, just shy of the Rift or Vive’s 110 degree FOV.

The company is so far staying mum on any other specifics surrounding their headset.

The post Varjo Raises $8.2M Investment to Further Develop “Human Eye-resolution” Headsets appeared first on Road to VR.

March 10, 2017

Global VR Industry Grows 40% Over Last Quarter

The virtual reality (VR) sector is still growing at a rapid rate, as VRFocus has reported previously. The Venture Reality Fund (The VR Fund) has today released it’s quarterly report going into detail on the global rise of VR.

Previous VR fund reports showed the rate of growth in Europe, and now it turns it’s attention the the rest of the world, noting several areas of interest, such as the doubling in size of the gaming and entertainment sector of VR, with that area featuring not just large companies, but also well-funded start-ups generating a solid amount of revenue in both the US and Asia.

The report also notes that the number of companies associated with VR grew over 40 percent, with the largest growth area being companies developing apps for head-mounted displays (HMDs).

VR Industry Landscape Q1 2017

In non-gaming areas, education, healthcare and journalism saw significant growth, while the report notes that advertising and analytics saw solid funding increases, which matches the increased amount of attention dedicated to VR advertising we have noted on VRFocus.

There has also been a significant increase in VR content creation in general, according to the report. New management systems and native platforms allowing content such as 360-degree video and photos to be quickly sent to the customer base. The VR Fund report also noticed a lot of activity in the area of 3D sound, notably with Valve acquiring Impulsonic and Korean company G’Audio entering the sector.

Infrastructure also saw significant activity, with Windows adding its own VR platform alongside partners such as HP and Lenovo, which could be a large step towards VR becoming truly mainstream.

The report is optimistic about the future, hoping to see the ‘all-in-one’ VR system that includes headset, position tracking and full gesture control happen ‘within a few years’.

As always, VRFocus will keep you informed on industry trends and reports.

February 7, 2017

UK Dominates The European VR Industry in The VR Fund’s Landscape Analysis

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 VR Fund-EU_VR_Landscape

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.

January 19, 2017

YJM Games Become First South Korean Investor in The VR Fund

Today South Korean developer YJM Games has announced a partnership with The Venture Reality Fund (The VR Fund), providing investment alongside building a network to expand their global virtual reality (VR) plans.

Through YJM Games’ US subsidiary, YJM Games USA, the company plans to make quick strategic investments in VR, augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) specialised businesses, keeping up with the latest trends in Silicon Valley, as well as taking a leading role in its home Asian market.

“We are very pleased and honored to have YJM Games as our first partner in Korea,” says Marco DeMiroz, co-founder and general partner at The VR Fund. “In terms of the VR and AR market size, we believe that it is a good opportunity to communicate innovative VR and AR content through the alliance with YJM Games in major Asian markets, while also promoting Asian VR and AR content to the global market.”

Visualise launches Norwegian 360 experience_1

The VR Fund has become a major contributor to VR startups, having invested in Owlchemy Labs, developer of Job Simulator; TheWaveVR, which is currently in the process of developing an immersive music platform; and SLIVER.tv, a specialist in live streaming esports in VR, recently announcing 14 upcoming tournaments for 2017. The VR Fund is also a member of the Virtual Reality Venture Capital Alliance (VRVCA), a $10 billion USD global investment consortium of 30 members, featuring Softbank, HTC Vive, Colopl VR Fund, Immersion Ventures, Sequoia Capital to name a few, formed to aid long-term growth in the VR industry through sharing and investing in both technology and content creators.

“We have already participated in the investment of The VR Fund by leading companies in the US and Japan,” says YJ Min, CEO of YJM Games. “We have participated in this fund LP with the best expertise in VR around the world, I hope to grow together.”

VRFocus will continue its coverage of The VR Fund, reporting back with any further announcements.