Virtual reality and augmented reality are still in their infancy, but both spaces are developing quickly. Almost all of the large tech companies have shown interest, including Google (Google Cardboard), Facebook (acquisition of Oculus VR for a reported $2B), Microsoft (HoloLens) and Apple (acquisition of Metaio). As AR and VR devices and applications slowly make their way into offices and households, we used CB Insights data to highlight emerging VR and AR startups that are worth keeping an eye on.
We found 13 early-stage companies that have raised Series A or seed funding within the last two years, but haven’t yet moved to Series B. The top two companies in terms of total funding raised are both focused on augmented reality. Blippar, which has developed an augmented-reality mobile app, raised $45M. Meta has created augmented-reality glasses and released a software-development kit for developers. It has raised $23M.
(Magic Leap, which seems to grab all the press attention for AR and VR, has already raised a Series B round.)
| Name | Logo | Total Funding | Select Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blippar |
|
$45M | Qualcomm Ventures |
| Meta |
|
$23.3M | Y Combinator, Horizon Ventures |
| Improbable |
|
$20M | Andreessen Horowitz |
| Atheer |
|
$10.6M | Streamlined Ventures, Lab IX |
| Virtuix |
|
$6.8M | Tekton Ventures, Houston Angel Network |
| Altspace |
|
$5.2M | Google Ventures, Lux Capital |
| Survios |
|
$4M | Shasta Ventures, Felicis Ventures |
| WorldViz |
|
$3.5M | Intel Capital |
| Envelop VR |
|
$2M | Voyager Capital, Hank Vigil, Shana Fisher, Fritz Lanman |
| Nurulize |
|
$2M | Chaos Group |
| Augmented Pixels |
|
$1M | The Hive, AVentures Capital |
| InsiteVR |
|
<$1M | Y Combinator |
| Visidraft |
|
<$1M | Hivers & Strivers |
Feature photo credit to Maurizio Pesce.
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