The aforementioned Genie was the largest, followed by Soul Machines, a developer of “digital people” who interact in virtual worlds and other online settings, which closed on $70 million in February. Multiple companies focused on avatar development raised 2022 rounds. On the entertainment side, investors recognized that virtual worlds usually require an avatar to get around. And Proximie and Osso VR, two companies that apply VR technology to the practice of surgery, raised $80 million and $66 million, respectively, in funding rounds this year. On the health front, Mindmaze, a digital therapeutics platform that employs VR in some technology, secured $105 million in a February financing.
We’re also seeing multiple deals across some similar themes, including avatars, health applications of VR, and gaming. Genies, a developer of tools for building avatars and the accessories and environments to go with them, also achieved unicorn status with a $150 million April Series C led by Silver Lake.The round brings total funding to date to over $270 million. Scandit, a Zurich-based developer of barcode-scanning technology that includes an augmented reality overlay, pulled in $150 million in a February Series D round, elevating the company to unicorn status.
REALITY FALLS PRO
LootMogul, developer of a metaverse and Web3 platform for pro athletes and fans, scored $200 million in a September investment backed by GEM.At least seven metaverse- and augmented reality-related rounds of $100 million and up have closed so far this year. However, investors clearly aren’t abandoning the category. Still, hot sectors have been known to buck trends, and that isn’t happening here. Overall global venture funding, of course, has also been down sharply, so augmented and virtual reality categories are by no means isolated examples of investors’ rising risk-aversion.
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