Pimax, the Shanghai-based VR headset manufacturer known for their upcoming wide field of view headset Pimax ‘8K’, have raised nearly $15 million in their first post-Kickstarter investment round.

According to China-based tech publication YiVian, Pimax announced on December 19th that it had closed a near ￥100 million RMB round of Series A funding co-led by China-based firms O-Film and Tianma Bearing Group Co (TMB).

Back when the company’s Kickstarter campaign hit the $2.45 million mark, or just over that of Oculus’ Kickstarter, it was clear Pimax had passed an important litmus test regarding public interest of high-FOV, higher resolution VR headsets.

Pimax CEO Robin Weng at the mic, image courtesy Pimax VR

Garnering from its backers over $4.2 million USD by the campaign’s conclusion, and becoming the most well-funded VR project on Kickstarter, Pimax’s trajectory looks more promising than ever thanks to its first private investment.

To keep things in context: after Oculus’ successful Kickstarter, it gave the company momentum to raise a $16 million Series A in 2013 and a $75 million Series B later that year, which was then followed by their $2 billion Facebook buyout in 2014. Needless to say, we’ll be watching with bated breath as Pimax moves forward.

Pimax’s ‘5K’ and ‘8K’ VR headsets are still slated to release to early backers starting in January 2018, although it’s unclear if the company will make hardware revisions now that it has some fresh funding underfoot. We’ll have our eye on Pimax as it heads into the new year.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • impurekind

    8K and 200 degree FOV VR headsets is very much heading in the right direction. I can’t wait for the near future of VR.

    • victor

      Completely agree!! Especially that 200degFOV

      • Ian Shook

        That’s like holding a VHS tape up against your nose!

        • mellott124

          Nice!

        • Maarten DB

          BURN :D

        • brubble

          WE HAVE A THREAD WINNER!

    • Jay Tea

      It’s not 8K…

      It’s dual 1440p signal upscaled to dual 4K screens. Unless you buy the X model, then it’s just dual 4K.

      • Callsign Vega

        “Just” dual 4K. LOL

        • Jay Tea

          Which is not 8K. What part of this are you not understanding? Why do you think it’s OK for companies to lie in their marketing?

          • Callsign Vega

            It is 8K pixels wide. No one has said it was UHDTV or 7680×4320. You are inferring that.

          • Jay Tea

            No, THEY are inferring that by saying that the 8K X model “accepts and displays 8K input”. No, it does not. 8K resolution is also known as 4320p, which is 7680×4320. Never mind the fact that the non X model only accepts dual 1440p input, which isn’t even 8K pixels wide lol…

            Stop defending shady business practices and marketing lies.

            Lol are you one of the people dumb enough to back a project from a no-name company?

          • Callsign Vega

            Wrong. “8K UHD” is 7680×4320. They never claimed it was 7680×4320 nor labeled it 8K UHD.

          • Jay Tea

            Do you at least lube up first?

            Since you clearly love when companies screw you.

          • Jay Tea

            They also never claimed “Only 8K pixels wide”.

            It’s not 8K. Period. Spin it however you want, they’re preying on consumer ignorance. And you’re just defending them for it like a sheep.

          • Jay Tea

            And again, you ignore the fact that the standard model is dual 1440p signal upscaled.

  • Kudos to them

  • Chris01

    @Ben Lang

    Please be sure to cover their final prototype at CES in Janurary. Contact Xunshu on the Pimax forum to book a time

    http://forum.pimaxvr.com/t/will-pimax-be-at-ces-2018/4721/2?u=davobkk

  • bud

    Backer here :-)
    Would be very forward thinking if Pimax could set up a digital market place for software purchases and add IOTA ftw….(3rd gen cypto, will be earth default standard machine 2 machine soon)

  • Foreign Devil

    I’m surprised they can’t find plenty of millions in private investment in China. WHen I was in China there was ridiculous amounts of cash just waiting for any kind of venture to invest in.

  • theonlyrealconan

    I really want them to succeed (the more competition the better). Vive and Rift should have at least announced 2nd gen by now. I have the Vive right now. I do like the its build quality, but the rez really bad (limitations of first gen, but still true). And I doubt Vive or Rift would be so aggressive to try a 200 FOV, so I give a lot of credit to Pimax.

    But I am very wary of Pimax as well. I was an early backer of the 8k. I canceled it when I found it the 8k is an upscaled 4k. The 5k is native 1440 per eye. The 8k is up scaled 4k per eye. And the 8kx is supposed to be native (but it is not even built yet and not coming out till something like June of 2018). With them advertising 4k for the 8k, when it is just upscaled and not native, is just wrong. (And I am not going to even get into 8k only being 4k, lol. Much less 4k times two does not equal 8k, lol).

    • JustNiz

      I’m a backer too and was concerned when I heard that, but even if the upscaling is just scaling and doesn’t do any interpolation (unlikely), 1440p per eye resolution is still much higher than the vive does, so will inevitably be better. Also the 4k of actual pixels will definitely reduce/eliminate the screen door effect and pixelation which is my main complaint with the Vive, and the wider FOV will finally end the feeling that you’re looking at everything through a diving mask. ITs also much lighter so will be more comfortable. Sure it probably still won’t be ‘perfect’ but all those those things together mean that even at 1440p the improvement over Vive will still be significant.

    • Robbie Zeigler

      There is currently no gpu that would handle it any other way…..

      • dra6o0n

        Unless the developers starts embracing multi-explicit adapters for dx12 API, to combine new and old gpus to render sections of a screen.

        The only game that uses this is AoTS though.

        Note that after all the dx12 and vulkan hype, developers still pursue cheaper and more convenient development methods.

    • dra6o0n

      What’s more important is 1440p per eye for cheap, with mixed reality headsets coming at around $500 Canadian a bundle (hmd and 2 controllers), it’s vital for them to push for cheaper prices.

    • mirak

      Unless there is eye tracking and foveated rendering I don’t think increasing resolution is good for the market because of the power needed or wireless possibilities.

  • JustNiz

    Can’t wait for my 8k unit to arrive in a few weeks.

    • gothicvillas

      In a few weeks?

    • JMB

      According to the most recent official post over at pimax forums, you shouldn’t expect shipping to commence any time before March 2018, and that’s if all goes according to plan.

  • I sure hope they do the right thing this time. Sadly the 4K version presented last year left a lot to be desired, and has never fixed any of its fatal flaws, like actually being to use it in 4K mode, as well as the drifting IMU sensor data.

    • kosmo1982

      exactly, they rush their products and then try to fix it, but pimax 4k was unusable due to drift and i sold it. they will glue two 4k screens and hyped people will buy it anyway, but not me after experience with this company.

  • Antony Boudreau

    They already sold 30 thousand of their 4K model in half a year globally. I’m not concerned about their ability to deliver :) .

    • MW

      It does not convince me. Pimax4k was a joke. No tracking,refreshing like dk2, poor screen from smartphone. This is something completely different. This is more advanced HMD than Vive, Oculus, HP, Samsung…

      • Antony Boudreau

        That’s the gamble one takes with Kickstarter or IndieGogo. It’s a risky investment to save a few bucks.

    • brubble

      ..and 28000 have already broken