Altspace VR has today announced significant follow-on funding to their initial investment round which more than doubles the company’s seed funding, putting the total now at $5.2 million. The company, which has been largely in stealth mode, intends to publicly demonstrate their shared virtual reality environment for the first time today at the SVVR Meetup in Mountain View, CA.
With the company in stealth mode since early 2013, we don’t have a complete picture of what AltspaceVR is working on, but clearly they have the interest of some well known tech VCs.
Following the announcement of $2.5 million in initial funding just two months ago, AltspaceVR today says that their seed investment has reached $5.2 million thanks to Dolby Family Ventures, Formation 8, Google Ventures, and more. The money will be used to build out the AltspaceVR team and continue to develop the company’s shared virtual environment software.
Today we get a clearer picture of what the company is working on:
“AltspaceVR creates a shared experience around anything on the web,” the company says. “By bringing the 2D web into shared virtual spaces, users can watch Netflix, YouTube, Twitch, sports and other content together on massive screens. The shared experiences facilitated by AltspaceVR range from business to consumer; from a virtual product collaboration session to a game night with friends across the country.”
AltspaceVR shared some yet unseen screenshots with Road to VR.
When I last spoke with CEO Eric Romo, he told me that AltspaceVR wants to enable the creation of VR experiences with the same ease of web development. Today we learn that the company’s shared virtual environment will be largely based on JavaScript.
“With AltspaceVR’s API, web developers can leverage their existing knowledge of JavaScript to build new VR experiences or make existing web apps VR enabled in a matter of hours. AltspaceVR allows users to write in JS and deploy in VR,” says the company.
Our prior article on AltspaceVR’s initial funding round includes more details about what the company hopes to achieve:
The company is producing a standalone program, built on Unity, which will start with the user inside a multiplayer-capable virtual environment with the ability to summon floating browser windows to access content. Furthermore, they want the virtual environment surrounding the user to be an extension of the web, with the ability to click on a browser link to pull virtual content into the ‘altspace’ and to transport users to other altspaces.
Today the company will demonstrate its platform at the SVVR #13 Meetup in Mountain View, CA. Road to VR’s Brian Hart will be on the scene to report on the reveal of the company’s software.
Full Disclosure: “Cymatic” Bruce Wooden, who is Director of Developer & Community Relations at AltspaceVR, contributes articles to Road to VR.
