After initially shunning the product during an appearance on ABC’s investment reality show, Shark Tank, billionaire investor Mark Cuban joins other venture capitalists in raising $3 million in seed funding for the Virtuix Omni VR treadmill.
A few months back, the Virtuix Omni was featured on ABC’s investment reality show, Shark Tank (Season 5, Episode 11). CEO Jan Goetgeluk pitched the omnidirectional VR treadmill to a panel of wealthy investors, including Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. Goetgeluk approached the investors seeking $2 million for a 10% stake in the company but didn’t land a deal.
Cuban, who reasoned on the show that the product was too reliant on the Oculus Rift, seems to have changed his mind. Today, Virtuix has announced that the company has raised $3 million from a number of investment firms, including Cuban’s Radical Investments. I’ve got a good feeling that the $2 billion Facebook/Oculus buyout had something to do with the reversal.
See Also: Q&A: Virtuix CEO Shares Inside Details of the Shark Tank Experience After Omni Pitch
The Virtuix Omni is an omnidirectional treadmill for VR gaming. Virtuix didn’t invent the idea of the VR treadmill, but they designed a passive solution that represents the first affordable commercial version of such a device.
The $3 million seed round, which will help the company expand production and distribution of the Omni, includes investments from Partech (Tekton Ventures), Maveron, Scetan Ventures, Scout Ventures, StartCaps Ventures, a group of private investors, and Cuban’s Radical Investments. Virtuix says that Tekton and Maveron made bulk of the investment. The terms of the deal were not announced.
The Virtuix Omni started its journey on Kickstarter where it blasted through the $150,000 goal to raise $1.1 million. The Omni can be pre-ordered from Virtuix for $499. The first Kickstater units are expected to be delivered in July with pre-order units coming later in the summer. The company says it has sold more than 3,000 units thus far.