Today at the China International Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference (ChinaJoy 2016), HTC announced the first batch of companies to take part in their recently announced Vive X Accelerator program. The cohort of 33 VR startups, coming from across the industry, will see investments from the fund and go through a four month course to get their products into a market-ready state.
The first batch of startups were chosen from a pool of approximately 1,200 applications globally, 50% of which came from China, and range anywhere from content creators, to companies focusing on enabling technologies, hardware and services, says HTC.
Participating startups will develop their tech across four Vive X locations—San Francisco, Beijing, Taipei, and a hardware-focused location in Shenzhen—and will have four months “to produce marketable products/content which will be presented to potential investors upon their graduation.”
The first companies accepted into the Vive X program (minus startups still in stealth) include:
Entertainment
- Action Bunker VR
- 7D Vision
- LumiereVR
Gaming
- Directive Games
- Shortfuse
- EdSenses
- Omnigames
- Metal Cat
- Glowsticks Games
Applications
- CleVR
- appMagics
- Teemew
- SurrealVR
UI/UX
- BreqLabs
Tools/Technologies
- RockVR
- Apmetrix
- Fishbowl VR
- Kaleidoscope VR
- Immersv
- Wondergate
- ObEN
Education/Medical
- Augmented Intelligence
- TheMetaverseChannel
HTC hasn’t specified exactly how much of the $100 million earmarked especially for the accelerator the companies will be receiving.
If you are looking to get some of that $100 million for your big idea however, HTC is taking applications starting in November 2016 for their second batch of startups, with intentions to expand to more locations in Asia Pacific and Europe in 2017.
VRVA Grows
The HTC-led Virtual Reality Venture Capital Alliance (VRVCA), a consortium of venture capital firms focusing their funds on virtual reality, has also admitted eight new members, bringing the total investible capital beyond $12 billion.
“As the leader in the VR industry, HTC is committed to supporting a vibrant VR ecosystem. The Vive X Accelerators and the VRVCA are integral parts of our vision for enabling and rewarding true innovation amongst the VR startup community,” said Alvin W. Graylin, China Regional President of HTC VR.