HTC is heading up a $10 billion V.C. focused on virtual reality that includes the participation of more than two dozen other companies and partners.
That group, called the Virtual Reality Venture Capital Alliance, notes on its site that it will offer six opportunities for pitches from startups “from Seed to Pre-IPO companies,” with $10 billion in “total deployable capital” being earmarked. The new, larger group follows the earlier formation of HTC’s Vive X VR accelerator program.
And VR is just a piece of the broader initiative, which will be based in Beijing and San Francisco, and led by two HTC execs – Alvin Wang Graylin, who is the VC’s president, and Michael Lewis, its VP.
“We invest in Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed reality startups of any size from anywhere around the world,” the site notes. Our network spans the entire globe, so it doesn't matter where you are, as long as you are doing something game-changing, we want to help you realize your dream. We are not searching for the next technology revolution because it is already here. We are searching for the next entrepreneur to lead it.”
The VC will consider investing in a range of verticals, including enterprise, healthcare, education, social, events, gaming, and VR movies, as well as technologies spanning VR tools, platforms, infrastructure/hardware, peripherals, and accessories.
VRVCA also announced its founding members: Blue Run Ventures; Colopl VR Fund; China eCapital; CRCM; CRU Capital; DCM; FreesVC; GGV Capital; Harvest Tech Investments; Hejun Capital; HTC Vive;Hyperion Media Group; Immersion Ventures; Infinity Venture Partners; Innovation Works; Keytone Ventures; Legend Capital; Matrix Partners; Qiming Venture Partners; Redpoint Ventures; Sequoia Capital; Unity VC; The VR Fund; WestSummit Capital; WI Harper; YunFeng Capital; Yunqi Partners; and 500 Startups
VRVCA has also set up a submission page, which says the group will review new entries on a rolling basis.
Elsewhere, HTC, the company behind the new high-end HTC Vive VR platform, is separating its virtual reality division into a wholly owned subsidiary called the HTC Vive Tech Corporation.
