Infinite Reality, a company building an engine for creating immersive web content underpinned with WebXR support, announced it has raised a whopping $3 billion to continue building the company’s “vision for the next generation of the internet.” Not only is this a huge fundraising round, such an investment coming from a single private investor is highly uncommon.

Founded in 2019, Infinite Reality’s flagship product is iR Studio, an engine for building immersive websites that represent visitors as avatars in a virtual environment. iR Studio sites support multi-user and WebXR by default, meaning sites built with the engine can be visited in any XR headset that supports WebXR, directly through a web browser.

The company announced today that it has raised $3 billion in additional funding, bringing its valuation to $12.25 billion. For comparison, a ‘unicorn’ (a startup valued at $1 billion) is a commonly cited benchmark for a highly successful tech startup. That makes Infinite Reality’s $12.25 billion valuation quite rare.

Even rarer, however, is that this $3 billion investment was purportedly made by a single private investor. While there are often $1+ billion investments or acquisitions in the tech world, the money usually comes from an investment firm, a major corporation, or a combination of the two, rather than an individual.

The investor is said to have a portfolio that “focuses on global technology and real estate investments.”

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While the identity of the investor has not been disclosed, the sheer amount of the investment likely whittles the list of possible investors down to someone among the 1,000 wealthiest people in the world.

Ashcroft Law Firm, the firm representing the investor in the deal, provided a statement on the client’s behalf:

Our client has made and evaluated several investments in the technology sector. What compelled this investment was not just [Infinite Reality CEO’s] stated vision for the product itself, but his commitment to giving customers ownership of their data. As everyone understands, it is a crucial time for businesses of all sizes to own their data, customers, and intellectual property as AI gains momentum in the marketplace. Recognizing the significance of scalability and mass marketability, our client was particularly impressed by what he believes is iR’s revolutionary product, which caters to individuals and artists seeking to build their brand image with immediate global reach while servicing clientele from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies. It is our client’s belief this investment underscores a pivotal move towards empowering users and redefining ownership in the digital age.

From Infinite Reality’s side, the company says the funding is a win for building a next-generation immersive internet and giving businesses control of their own data.

“While we are excited that our ability to secure this level of funding validates our mission to build an immersive experience platform that will power the next generation of the web, we are absolutely ecstatic to share this news with our customers: businesses all over the world,” says John Acunto, co-founder and CEO of Infinite Reality. “The ability to provide them a platform where they can not only create a great immersive environment, but one where they own their data, own their customer, and own their experience means the world to Infinite Reality—and to me personally.”

Despite its focus on the immersive web, and considering the amount the company has raised, Infinite Reality is not particularly well known in the XR space. In fact the company has seemingly grown into its own little conglomerate, having made several acquisitions of its own over the years.

On one hand, the company has made strategic acquisitions like the AR tech company Zappar, avatar company Action Face, and the immersive web company Ethereal Engine. But the company has also made a series of seemingly disjointed acquisitions like the entertainment and esports business RektGlobal. And, further afield still, the acquisition of the Drone Racing League.

The huge investment by a private investor and Infinite Reality’s assimilation of several different companies certainly make for a unique—but uncertain—situation.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Christian Schildwaechter

    TL;DR: This is not what most would expect a huge investment in an XR company means, it seems mostly about some AI driven B2B services involving rich countries in the Middle East and all the buzzwords they could squeeze into the announcement. It is real though, whatever it actually is.

    Pretty sure the keyword here is AI, not XR. Their linked statement mentions AI dozens of times and XR maybe twice, mostly as something AI automatically generated some real estate related content for. It's not exactly clear what this is all about.

    Put simply, we enable them to seamlessly convert their existing 2D website into an immersive space and add the power of AI to optimize sales and ultimately their bottom line. In our world, brands and creators aren’t just participants but true architects of their digital destiny, with complete control over their customer relationships and data.

    Whatever that means, they are definitely trying to win at buzzword bingo. Their 2024 activities are full of name drops for UAE, Saudi Arabia or Dubai, where people with lots of money create palm shaped islands or miles long cities along a single, straight road in the desert. Everything seems somewhat related to real estate in some of the most expensive parts of the world, so USD 3bn might not even be a lot, depending on what they do. They most certainly didn't get that money for creating nice XR apps on Quest and AVP.

    And what they got isn't all that clear, but it is unlikely to be all cash. In the wonderful world of venture capital closing a USD 3bn finance round could also mean the investor granted them a USD 3bn credit line for 25% of the shares, raising the company's evaluation to USD 12bn, even if it would only be a lemonade stand. The deal is about equity though, not covering existing debt like when Saudi Arabia's Public investmet fond took over the majority od Magic Leap.

    A couple of years ago Apple invested AFAIR USD 500mn into their supplier for artificial sapphire lens covers, so they could expand the process to phone screens. Most of that money came in the form of manufacturing equipment Apple provided to them, with clear delivery goals. The company never managed to scale up the process, went bankrupt and Apple got what was left. So investment can mean a lot of things.

    I don't think that's the case here, but with how often the mention AI, at least parts of the USD 3D could be cloud credits for expensive AI servers in Google's, Microsoft's or Amazon's vast data center collection, that they can use as long as certain growth criteria are met. Which would esp. practical if the investor was Google, Microsoft or Amazon (which they aren't).

    Just from the large amount of money, the groups involved, and the complete lack of concrete details on that this is about, I'm temped to assume that a company involved with a number of rich clients convinved one very rich player that they can create some AI driven solution that will auto-convert parts of the web used to sell insanely expensive property automatically into a walk-trough XR web version. (We no longer use the word metaverse.) Without the need for anyone involved to understand the how, what or why, just generating billions from all the people that are desparately waiting to throw their money at whatever it is.

    • Ben Lang

      Good food for thought. It definitely raises some eyebrows, so it'll be an interesting one to watch.

  • Naruto Uzumaki

    Elon saw sword art online season 1