Against Gravity, the studio behind the popular social VR game Rec Room, has raised an addition $24 million in venture capital across two investment rounds.

Speaking to TechCrunch, Against Gravity says that it has raised $24 million in venture funding in previously undisclosed Series A and Series B rounds, led by VC firms Sequoia and Index Ventures. This reportedly brings the company’s total venture funding to $29 million.

It’s big news for Against Gravity, which has been increasingly focusing its social VR app Rec Room around user-generated content, and ensuring that the title is available on a wide range of headsets (and soon even mobile devices) allowing friends to connect easily across VR platforms (a point of significant friction between most VR platforms). The company tells TechCrunch that Rec Room is nearing 1 million user-created rooms. Additionally, the company’s emphasis on a family-friendly aesthetic gives it a more general appeal than something like VRChat, another social VR app which serves up subculture vibes.

Rec Room has seen increasing recognition from the VR community as a top social VR app; it’s still tiny, but may represent a growing threat to Facebook’s messy social VR approach which is fragmented even between the company’s own headsets.

Still, Facebook is surely a much larger threat to Rec Room than the other way around; like Apple with iOS, Facebook has the option to build deeper social features into the core VR software of its headsets—features which third-party developers aren’t allowed to build—like the ability to connect players across between separate VR applications.

Last month’s launch of Oculus Quest (on which Rec Room has been available since day one) was likely a moment of validation for Against Gravity and potential investors. Among the headsets on which Rec Room is available, Quest is far and away the easiest to use, making Rec Room’s brand of ‘what should we do today?’ fun that much more approachable.

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However, Rec Room has been free from the start, and the company is still sorting out its long term monetization strategy, but—like any tech startup—is clearly most focused right now on user growth backed by VC funding.

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Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Firestorm185

    Awesome! For such an amazing free-to-play they deserve all the moneys xD

  • Xron

    We’re nearing to “Oasis”!!! :D

    • kool

      They said the Oasis was built in 2026 we may actually get it by then!

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  • Jarom Madsen

    A point of concern with Rec Room on the Quest is their app management. Rec Room stands to be a major VR platform by itself, constantly expanding its world with more and more things to do. This is great except that Quest has relatively small storage space. Rec Room is going to hit a wall eventually if they continue to expand unless they allow you to install specific activities like they do with community content.

    Excited to see what Rec Room becomes!