Breaking Down Billion-Dollar AR/VR Investment In The Last 12 Months

Augmented/Virtual Tech, Real InvestmentAugmented and virtual reality are the new hotness, as VCs and corporates get in on the act. While Facebook’s multi-billion dollar acquisition of Oculus got everyone’s attention early last year, it’s only in the last 12 months that investments accelerated.

There was a slow trickle of AR/VR investments from 2006 until late 2014. Then Magic Leapraised $542 million from Google and others. This was the starting gun for investment accelerating, with nearly $1 billion poured into the sector in the last 12 months.

Last quarter alone saw more than 6x the investment in the market from Q2 2014. While VC and corporate communities are still developing an informed focus on the industry, their interest has never been higher.

Digi-Capital AR-VR investments 2011 to 2015

Magic Leap took more than half the money in the last 12 months, and there are reports that they’re raising another billion. VCs and corporates have also become excited beyond our Floridian friends, with an impressive diversity of investment in a market that hasn’t really launched yet.

There have been significant investments in AR/VR head-mounted displays, video, solutions/services, advertising/marketing, games and apps. As the ecosystem begins to take shape, the investment community is providing the fuel to take AR/VR skywards.

Not An Exit Market Yet

Facebook’s Oculus acquisition was another catalyst for investors and corporates, but there has been a bigger impact on investment than M&A so far.

The AR/VR market delivered $250 million of M&As in the last 12 months, with Intel buying Recon accounting for around three-quarters of the total. That could change dramatically next year, as major corporates try to leapfrog the competition through buying hot startups.

Virtually Guaranteed To Be Augmented

With the AR/VR market beginning to launch, the investment community today is divided into true believers like Intel, Google, Facebook and Microsoft, and those taking a wait and see attitude.

There will be bumps in the road next year, but fortune favors the brave in early stage investment markets. When the market gets going and there are a few more chunky exits, it’s going to become increasingly hard for folks to stay on the sidelines.

Comments

Square’s New Apple Pay And Chip Card Reader Available To Pre-Order

Shortly after going public, Square announced that its new card reader is now available to pre-order on its website for $49. The new reader will ship in early 2016. It’s been a slow roll-out for the company’s new reader as Square first teased it at Apple’s WWDC in June. Compared to the good old Square reader that you put in your headphone jack, this one packs a few new features. First, it supports Apple Pay, and potentially other contactless payment systems. It has an NFC chip and a tokenization system for secure contactless payments. Second, the new bigger design comes with a new slot for chip cards in case you can’t pay with your phone. Finally, it’s a wireless reader that connects to your phone or tablet using Bluetooth. It has a small built-in battery and you can recharge it with a standard microUSB port. According to Square’s website , 100 retailers are already using the new reader. But the company has yet to ship the new rea...

Report: Amazon Is Building An App To Let Normal People Deliver Packages For Pay

Amazon is apparently enlisting everyday humans in its network of endless online shopping delivery. The WSJ reports that the ecommerce giant is working on an app internally that would allow the average consumer to make a little cash by picking up Amazon packages at various retail locations and dropping them off at their final destination. WSJ’s sources did not have a timeline for the release of this product, internally called ‘On My Way,’ and were unsure whether it would launch at all. Amazon has spent years not only iterating the way it tailors your online shopping experience — the mega retailer has one of the best suggestion engines in the business — but also the way that it gets you your products with speed and convenience. Besides the standard shipping (or two-day for Prime members), Amazon has fiddled with the idea of letting Uber drivers and yellow cabs deliver products same-day, as well as using bike messengers and third-party delivery services for Prime N...

The EHang 184 Is A Human-Sized Drone Taking Off At CES

We’ve seen some pretty cool stuff on day 1 of CES 2016, but probably nothing more eye-catching than the EHang 184, a human-sized drone built by the Chinese UAV company EHang . Yes you heard right — a giant autonomous drone that fits a human. It’s basically what you would expect to see if someone shrunk you down to the size of a LEGO and stuck you next to a DJI Inspire. Except no one was shrunk, and the giant flying machine was sitting smack in the middle of the CES drone section. EHang, which was founded in 2014 and has raised about $50M in venture fundingto date, was pretty gung-ho about telling everyone at CES that the 184 was the future of personal transport. And for the most part, people were too in awe to question them. But the reality is that the company probably was using the 184 as more of a marketing tool for their standard-sized drones like the Ghost . Not that we’re saying that the 184 will never be a real thing, just that it probably isn’t co...

Xiaomi’s 15.6” Notebook To Cost Less Due To Older CPU & GPU

Xiaomi is, first and foremost, a smartphone manufacturer. This company tends to dabble in pretty much anything tech-related, and they will release their first notebook soon. Inventec has already confirmed that they’re working on (one of) the company’s notebook, and that the device is expected to arrive in April next year. Well, Inventec is working on one of the company’s notebooks, but three different ones have been mentioned, the 12.5, 13.3 and 15.6-inch models. Inventec is working on the 12.5-inch model, while Compal is rumored to be working on the 13.3-inch variant. The 15.6-inch notebook is the most interesting one here, read on. The specifications of the 15.6-inch Xiaomi notebook have surfaced a while back, and according to that report, the device will sport a 15.6-inch 1080p (1920 x 1080) display, 8GB of RAM and will be powered by Intel’s Core i7 4th-generation SoC. Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 760M GPU is said to be included in this package as well, and...

Why Edge is the best browser for Windows 10 users?

Windows 10 comes with a whole new browser,i.e. Edge aka project SPARTAN. The good news is, EDGE is fast with a user friendly interface. The bad news is, there is not a lot to offer to Chrome users. #User_interface Project Spartan was started from scratch with a user friendly interface. The home screen of EDGE contains news-feed updates and more, just like iGoogle homepage and a welcoming search bar with the title “Where to next?” . Edge UI contains only basic controls required for general operation i.e., bold icons, wider tabs than the traditional slimmer ones in google chrome. Address bar contains buttons such as HUB giving easy access to favorite bar, reading list, history and downloads, web note button, share and more actions. Bold icons and wider tabs are easily accessible by touch users resulting in better user experience. Also, the light colored theme seems clean and simple. #Performance The best part of EDGE is, it is boosted with performance. Browser...

Exciting Technology

Search This Blog