Survios, the VR development studio behind the Vive title Raw Data, has announced a whopping $50 million in funding to further expand its VR content offerings. The new round makes the company the most funded pure VR development studio to date.
Survios’ announcement today is actually an announcement of two individual funding rounds together totalling $50 million. Back in 2014, the company had raised a $4.2 million Series A investment, with a reported Series B investment in October of 2015, though the round size and other details were never disclosed. Today’s announcement appears to lump together that older Series B investment and a newer Series C investment; the company hasn’t broken down the sizes of each round, but has announced that together they total an impressive $50 million. Now with some $54 million in raised capital, Survios is the top funded pure VR development studio to date.
The former round (which we presume was the company’s Series B), was led by Lux Capital with participation from Shasta Ventures, Danhua Capital, Shanda Holdings, Felicis Ventures and Dentsu Ventures, according to Survios. The more recent Series C was led by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM); as part of the investment, MGM’s Chairman and CEO Gary Barber joins Survios’ board of directors.
The interesting investment by MGM, whom most will recognize for their movie production and publishing work—including major films like The Hobbit trilogy—is described as “strategic” and aims to make use of MGM’s iconic IP.
With the sizable investment, Survios says they’ll also pick up a publishing role, planning to “add third party titles to its slate and to expand distribution into international venues.” The new funding puts the company “in a position to achieve our goal of becoming the leading publisher and content creator in virtual reality,” says Nathan Burba, CEO of Survios.
In addition to publishing, Survios plans to extend their VR content offerings to “entertainment centers around the world,” with a likely first target being China where high end VR is thriving in the out-of-home ‘arcade’ setting.
Survios’ first (and so far only) VR title Raw Data [our review] made its debut as an Early Access release in July. According to the company, the game earned $1 million in revenue in its first month, a substantial figure for the burgeoning VR game market.
