Virtual reality startup NextVR raises $80M Series B round to expand beyond US
California company raised money from Asian technology companies and investment funds — A syndicate of Asian technology companies and investment funds are pouring money into a Laguna Beach, Calif. …
Context & Ripple Effects
NextVR is doubling down on live VR broadcasting less than a year after its $30M round from Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Formation 8, which followed early proof points like streaming a Democratic debate and the NBA season opener in VR. The new twist is the investor base: Asian technology companies and funds are replacing US media conglomerates as the capital source, tied to a stated push beyond the US market.
The round lands mid-wave: Within rebranded and raised $12.56M weeks earlier with Fox, WME, and Vice aboard, and Virtual Reality Co pulled in $23M the year before. Where this particular wave ends matters — four years later, Apple would acquire NextVR in a deal reported at around ~$100M, barely above the company's cumulative fundraising.
First-order effects
- NextVR gains $80M and a syndicate of Asian strategic investors, giving it both the runway and the local partners to take its live-event VR broadcasts outside the US.
- The US media investors from the prior round — Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Formation 8 — see their stakes diluted as Asian capital takes the lead position.
Second-order effects
- Rival VR content startups like Within and Virtual Reality Co face pressure to match the round size and find their own strategic backers, pushing valuations up across the category.
- Corporate money formalizes behind the trend: Samsung's $150M NEXT Fund, launched months later targeting pre-seed-to-Series-B startups in VR, AI, and IoT, gives the space a dedicated institutional pipeline.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — heavy venture funding into standalone VR content companies followed by absorption at prices near total capital raised, as with Apple's reported ~$100M NextVR deal — independent VR broadcasting consolidates into platform owners rather than surviving as a standalone industry.
- Cross-border syndicates become the standard funding structure for consumer-media startups, with Asian strategics buying early positions in Western content technology they can't build domestically fast enough.
The trend: VR content startups of this era raised large cross-border rounds only to be absorbed by platform giants, marking the shift from independent VR broadcasting to platform-owned immersive media.