New investors in the round include CITIC, NetEase, CMC Holdings, SoftBank Corp., VMS Investments Group, Founder H Fund, China Assets (Holdings) Limited, and Spectrum 28. According to the company, it has more than 36 granted patents for its streaming pipeline.
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The investment was also the second into Next VR by a Chinese firm. Financial details of CMC’s investment were not disclosed.
NextVR, a firm specializing in live VR streaming, has today announced an $80 million Series B investment with which the company aims to expand global operations. CITIC Guoan last month filed documents that showed was providing $20 million of funding for the company.
Li Ruigang, once dubbed China’s Rupert Murdoch, said in CMC’s statement that VR is becoming the “fundamental gene” in the entertainment industry, and that leadership in the area plays a vital role in the development of entertainment companies. In partnership with Blizzard Entertainment, Microsoft and Mojang AB, NetEase also licenses some of the most popular worldwide online games such as World of Warcraft®, Hearthstone®: Heroes of Warcraft™, and Minecraft in China. Other investors, who also participated in the Series A round, include Formation Group, Time Warner Investments, Comcast Ventures, Stephen Ross’s RSE Ventures, Mandalay Entertainment CEO Peter Guber, The Madison Square Garden Company, and dick clark productions.
“NextVR continues to revolutionize how live virtual reality content will be created and delivered”, said Scott Levine, Managing Director of Time Warner Investments and a NextVR board observer.
The VR startup, which has made a name for itself in live-streaming sporting events and concerts, has raised over $135 million to date.
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Known for developing platforms for on-demand broadcasting of live events to VR headgear, NextVR is in the process of raising an $80 million B financing round based on an $800 million valuation.
