Advanced Television

VR company Spaces raises additional $6.5m

January 16, 2017

Spaces, the virtual reality and mixed reality company launched in 2016 by VR pioneers from DreamWorks Animation, has raised an additional $6.5 million (€6.1m) in funding, led by China-based Songcheng Performances Development, with additional investment from Comcast Ventures, the venture-capital affiliate of Comcast Corporation, and other leading VC groups.

Combined with a previously announced $30 million SPpaces-Songcheng theme-park joint venture, the new investments accelerate Spaces’ vision to build a new era of VR-enabled parks and attractions.

Spaces’ Series Seed round also includes investments by Boost VC; Colopl VR Fund; GREE; Kai Huang; The Venture Reality Fund; and Youku Global Media Fund and CRCM VC – all of whom were initial investors in Spaces.

“Through our Spaces Parks & Attractions division, we’re fundamentally reimagining the theme park experience with stunning advances in VR technology,” said Spaces co-founder and CEO Shiraz Akmal. “Together with our Songcheng joint venture, this new capital expands our efforts to create entirely new kinds of VR-enabled destinations.”

Co-founder and CTO Brad Herman added, “It’s exciting to be at the centre of the convergence of creativity, technology and theme parks. The future of VR and mixed reality will bring to life immersive experiences on a grand scale.”

Spaces and Songcheng plan to announce details about their theme park projects soon.  Songcheng is one of the world’s biggest theme-park operators, with annual attendance of more than 23 million visitors in 2015, according to data from the Themed Entertainment Association.

Spaces also announced it has named former DreamWorks Animation CFO Fazal Merchant; Comcast Ventures’ managing director Michael Yang; and Ethan Wang, general manager of Songcheng Technology, to serve on its newly established board of directors.

Categories: Articles, Business, Funding, VR