Varjo, maker of high-end enterprise XR headsets, this week announced it has raised a $40 million Series D investment to continue building its Varjo Reality Cloud software and deliver a “true-to-life industrial metaverse.”

Varjo makes some of the highest-end enterprise XR headsets on the market, along with unique software solutions, claiming recently that one quarter of Fortune 100 companies have used used its tech.

This week the company announced it has raised $40 million in a Series D investment. Participants in the round include returning investors EQT Ventures, Atomico, Volvo Car Tech Fund, and Lifeline Ventures, and new investors Mirabaud and Foxconn​, the latter being one of the world’s largest electronics manufacturers and a potential strategic partner for Varjo.

The leading investor in the round was not made clear. The raise brings Varjo’s total funding to $162.5 million since 2017, according to Crunchbase, and represents a down-round compared to the company’s Series C investment of $54 million in 2020.

“Our new funding is a testament to the incredible growth Varjo has seen over the past few years as interest for enterprise XR adoption grows,” said Timo Toikkanen, Varjo CEO. “The vision for a true-to-life metaverse for professionals is already here, and we are proud to be the first and only company in the world to continue to deliver human-eye resolution virtual and mixed reality technology to the largest and most iconic enterprises in the world.”

The so-called “metaverse for professionals” isn’t clearly defined by the company though it ostensibly refers to Varjo Reality Cloud, the company’s cloud-based XR streaming tech which aims to streamline the use of XR within large organizations. The company plans to expand the platform to a wider range of hardware and software, including headsets other than its own. Check out our exclusive preview of Varjo Reality Cloud earlier this year.

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Alongside the funding announcement Varjo also named a new Chief Product Officer, Patrick Wyatt, who is said to be leading the company’s software and cloud projects.

Beyond its enterprise ambitions, Varjo also recently dipped a toe into the prosumer space with the release of its high-end Aero VR headset which, for the first time, could be bought by general consumers without any kind of monthly fee. The company’s Series D funding announcement didn’t offer any hints about the future of the Aero, but Varjo told us earlier this year that there’s a good chance of an eventual follow-up to the headset.

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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."
  • xyzs

    If we accept that everything we do is computed inside who knows where data centers, adios the ownership on data and user independence regarding ISP VoIP and these companies who own your everything.
    I am zero enticed by such plans, no more than I was with Stadia.
    If this was a Meta announcement, many would think it’s dangerous, and they would be correct.

    Already experienced a Meta Quest with no connection ? how useless it is ? Imagine that but 100x worse because even the home menu is not accessible.

    • Christian Schildwaechter

      Ownership and cloud aren’t exclusive, the question is just if you are able to move your data to another provider. I actually use Nvidia Geforce Now a lot, which allows me to stream titles I own on Steam, Epic, GOG or Uplay. I could install any of them locally, or use a different service like Shadow, but so far Geforce Now offers the best cost to comfort ratio for me.

      My main reasons for the subscription are less hassle with installations and using multiple devices. I have a 2000+ titles Steam library, meaning a lot of streamable games on Geforce Now, and each of them will launch in seconds without installation. My (VR) PC is also not my main machine, I spend most of my time on Apple laptops and tiny Linux machines that work just fine as streaming targets, as does my very portable Steam Deck. I’m still planing to also sideload the Nvidia app to my Amazon Fire TV stick to play without any “computer”.

      I’d absolutely love to have the same level of comfort for VR. Currently I’m either limited by the performance of my Quest 2 or the location of my PC for PCVR. Would I jump onto an Nvidia VR streaming service with low latency at a comparable price (currently ~EUR 10/month)? Sure, just to have the option to run all my PCVR apps anywhere, even if I’d rarely use it. Will I try Plutosphere, who offer basically that, but with a token system that boils down to hourly costs of USD 1-3? No, because I’m willing to pay a little bit for comfort, even if I don’t technically need it, while Plutosphere or Shadow just try to place a PC in the cloud, leaving me with the same installation hassle as with my local machine, and a price where I will actually bother to use my existing machine.

      Occasionally there is trouble with either the Nvidia servers, the connection or my WiFi, so I wouldn’t recommend it for essential services. But these problems are rare and usually short, and if they remained, I would simply install stuff locally. Actually I often have the stuff also installed locally already and stream just because I don’t want to use the PC, so it is even less of a problem to switch. And since all the devices I use are actually intended for other things than game streaming, the scenario of not being able to access the home menu because the streaming service is down is rather far fetched and unrealistic.

      The whole experience of streaming to devices that are way too weak to render at a comparable quality level themselves makes me very bullish for any type of cloud VR streaming, which can solve so may problems we currently have. With a decent VR streaming service a Quest 1 user would be able to play the latest PCVR titles for the next decade or until the battery dies, which is a much better proposition than already being cut of from new Quest releases. And if the whole internet collapses, they still can play the apps they installed on the device.

    • Totally agree with @christianschildwaechter:disqus and would additionally add that this isn’t just for consumers.

      Varjo’s Reality Cloud and other streaming VR solutions like Innoactive and VMware’s XRHub (both of which use NVidia’s CloudXR for their backend) are squarely intended for the enterprise market. This isn’t just big business automotive, architecture, etc.

      As the developer for a psychology VR lab where we create VR apps to help support patients and do preventative mental health initiatives in the community, I’d love to be able to stream our content to cheap, affordable headsets which could be sent out to schools, health centres, or individuals. This is far more than just a consumer ‘Netflix for VR’, it could impact access to healthcare, education, etc. All very ReadyPlayerOne, I realise that, but exciting none the less :)