Oculus Rift Virtual Reality Gaming Headset Secures Additional $75 Million in Investor Funding
The makers of the Oculus Rift virtual reality gaming headset have raised an additional $75 million in investor funding. This investment will be used to wrap up creation of the company’ device and supporting software ecosystem.
This new investment comes from an angel investor by the name of Andreessen Horowitz, as well as additional contributions from Spark Capital, Matrix Partners, and Formation 8. Prior to this round of funding, Oculus secured over $16 million in additional investor funding following its successful $2.4 million-winning Kickstarter campaign.
The device has taken the gaming and tech worlds by storm in the past two years, showcasing have-to-see-it-to-believe-it demos of games like Doom 3, Team Fortress 2, and even a roller coaster simulator making use of the device to simulate an impressive virtual reality for the player.
“Over the past 16 months, we’ve grown from a start-up to a company whose virtual reality headset is poised to change the way we play, work and communicate,” said Brendan Iribe, CEO of Oculus VR, in a statement.
“40,000 developers and enthusiasts, as well as a number of great partners, have joined our cause and helped us bring the seemingly impossible to life. This additional infusion of capital, as well as the leadership and experience of Marc Andreessen, will help us take the final steps toward our ultimate goal: making virtual reality something consumers everywhere can enjoy.”
In an interview with The Verge, Iribe said that this latest investment is necessary to get the Oculus headset to a large consumer audience:
“We always knew we needed a B round to get to the consumer market at volume. We didn’t know the scale we needed for V1 until recently.”
Oculus has been saying for the better part of a year that a consumer version is mere “months, not years” away from completion. But how well the company fulfills that promise remains to be seen. In any case, we can’t wait to get our hands on one.