Complete Coverage: NYC TV & Video Week
New York – Investors backing virtual reality companies, knowing technology heavy hitters will sell consumers the necessary headsets other hardware, are looking to content, software and applications in the consumer and enterprise realms, experts said at the Virtual Reality 20/20 conference Monday (Oct. 17).
“They’ve built the hardware platform, that’s really set now,” Tipatat Chennavasin, general partner at VR-focused The Venture Reality Fund, said, referring to such big tech firms as Facebook (Oculus), Google (Daydream) and Sony (PlayStation VR). “Now it’s time to invest in the software ecosystem that supports that – that’s really the opportunity.”
Related: VR 20/20: Reducing Friction Key to VR Adoption
Intel thinks “it’s going to become a mainstream computing platform,” Arjun Metre, investment director at Intel Capital, said, sitting with executives from strategic investment units at Comcast, Time Warner and Samsung on the panel moderated by Greg Kahn, the event’s executive producer.
Chris Fralic, partner at First Round Capital which, he said, has backed more than 350 companies with early “seed” funds, said his firm has been looking at social applications, at “how the 2D and 3D worlds come together” and at parallels of how app stores developed in 2008 with challenges on the publisher and consumer sides “that are playing out again today.”
