Rec Room, the social VR platform, announced it has secured a $100 million financing round, bringing the company’s valuation to $1.25 billion. This makes it one of the most valuable VR companies outside of platform holders Facebook, Valve, and HTC.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Rec Room reveals its largest round to date was led by Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures, and includes Madrona Venture Group, all of which are existing investors.
This brings the Seattle-based company’s lifetime financing to $149 million following its most recent round in December 2020 when the company secured its $20 million Series C.
Although free to download, one of the platform’s largest monetization strategies is undoubtedly selling tokens, which can be used to buy in-game merch and access to user-generated content. There’s also a ‘Plus’ membership subscription which includes a steady supply of spendable tokens and discounts on certain in-game items.
In recent months however, Rec Room has also allowed Plus members to create objects and rooms for the game and sell them for a sort of ‘premium token’ which can then be exchanged into real cash. In short, the company is laying the groundwork for a functioning economy, whereby its users invest time into building more value into the platform while earning real money.
With over one million monthly active VR users and many more joining on traditional consoles, mobile devices, and PC, Rec Room is well positioned to make it happen. Now with substantial venture capital behind them, the company has more leeway to expand on its emergent economy, likely with aims similar to the sort of wealth creation seen in Second Life. For now, the studio says it hopes to pay out $1M in real cash to creators in 2021 through its token exchange program.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, Rec Room is hiring.
