The Venture Reality Fund Releases 2H 2017 Global Virtual Reality Landscape
The Venture Reality Fund (“The VR Fund”), a leading global venture capital firm focused on early-stage investments in the augmented, virtual and mixed reality (AR/VR/MR) spaces, today released its VR industry landscape for the second half of 2017. The report highlights more than 450 companies developing infrastructure, tools, platforms and applications for the VR ecosystem and depicts overall industry growth, increased investment and expanding international impact.
“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 2H 2017 report reveals the most substantial growth in apps and content for the Entertainment (79 percent) and Enterprise (69 percent) categories; tools and platforms for next generation reality capture (56 percent) and infrastructure for tethered head-mounted displays (47 percent).
The VR Fund evaluated more than 3,000 companies for inclusion in the 2H 2017 landscape and those selected met a certain criteria of funding, revenue, mainstream coverage and/or major partnerships. Since releasing its Q1 2017 Global VR Landscape, the number of qualified companies increased by 30 percent.
2H 2017 VR Landscape Key Insights:
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Major Hollywood players including AMC, Disney, DreamWorks Animation, HBO, Netflix, Sony Pictures and Viacom drove growth in the Entertainment category; new experiences for AAA properties, like Star Wars, will help drive consumer interest in VR over the coming quarters.
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The Games category grew by 40 percent during this period, consistent with the success reported by Oculus, Steam VR and PlayStation VR, combined, The VR Fund estimates more than 35 VR game titles have generated $1M or more, signaling a healthy early-stage ecosystem for VR game studios. These numbers are positioned for continued growth as headset prices drop.
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Notable global companies including Cisco, HP and Accenture entered the Enterprise VR space during this period, but a majority of the category’s growth was driven by startups building revenue-generating businesses for specific industry sectors.
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This trend will likely continue over the coming quarters as enterprises embrace the new Microsoft Windows Mixed Reality headsets, which offer a price point and ease of setup that significantly reduce the barriers to adoption.
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Major investment and growth within the next-generation reality capture space indicate the broader market is shifting away from 360-degree video to true VR.
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An increase in the creation of better, more lifelike and engaging entertainment and educational experiences for consumers and the enterprise will continue to boost growth across multiple categories and industries.
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Advancements in display technology are largely responsible for the 47 percent growth seen in the Tethered Head-Mounted Display category; progressive solutions are driving development of the next generation of headsets including the VRHero 5K, 8K Pimax and Varjo’s “human eye-resolution” quality 70 megapixel device.
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During this period, new all-in-one, standalone devices were announced, including the Oculus Go and HTC Vive Focus, and are strongly positioned to make a significant impact on consumer adoption in 2018.
The full VR Fund 2H 2017 Landscape can be found under the Resources section on The Venture Reality Fund website: thevrfund.com
About The Venture Reality Fund:
The Venture Reality Fund (“The VR Fund”) is a Silicon Valley and Los Angeles-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage investments in the virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) spaces. The firm invests globally in innovative companies across a wide variety of sectors from infrastructure and development tools to content and applications, to help entrepreneurs bring industry-defining technology to market faster. The firm’s first successful exit, Owlchemy Labs, closed within The VR Fund’s first year of operation.
As part of its commitment to educating and strengthening the ecosystem, The VR Fund publishes industry insights including regular global VR and AR landscapes detailing the market’s growth, new investments and increased international impact. It is also a proud partner of the Women in XR initiative, which connects female founders and women-led businesses to capital and resources.
