YUR, a VR fitness company, today announced it’s secured $1.1 million in pre-seed funding, something the company says will help them to further use VR to address what it considers a ‘worldwide epidemic of sedentary behavior’.

The pre-seed investment round was led by The Venture Reality Fund and BoostVC. A San Francisco-based startup, YUR (pronounced “why you are,”) was founded in early 2019 by Cix Liv and Dilan Shah.

Having launched its pilot program on PC VR earlier this year, YUR is now officially making its software available on Oculus Quest.

The plug-in tracks calories burned while in any VR game or app while using Quest, and also extends to a mobile app that syncs to Apple Health and Google Fit.

Image courtesy YUR

You won’t find YUR on the Oculus Store though, at least not yet. Since it provides an overlay and works in the background while other apps are running, for now the software is only available through Sidequest, the unofficial app store that allows you to side-load unofficially supported games and apps.

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“We are building YUR to be the Peloton of the future by making fitness a game,” said Cix Liv, co-founder and CEO of YUR. “Gaming and fitness have always been our biggest passions, and we believe there’s a growing community of people who want to combine these two passions as well.”

In addition to calorie-counting and fitness app integration, YUR is setting its sights on some pretty ambitious future usecases. The company says that, in the future, not only do they want their software tell how a player is moving in games, but to one day be able to provide specific health and fitness recommendations via an AI assistant—of course, all of it in the name of fun.

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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.
  • JesuSaveSouls

    Jesusavesouls !

    • aasd

      really? you come in here to shit out of your mouth like that? just fuck off

      • Jolly Mixum

        Hey come on aasd we are all entitled to an opinion. Why do you have to be so rude? And what about YUR? Can you not comment on the article. I am not sure myself but sounds like it has potential!

        • aasd

          or you know, go for the root of the problem. my unrelated comment wouldnt be here if it wasnt for his initial random comment. thanks for asking though!

          we are entitled to an opinion, but its not an opinion that religions is out of context in here.

          • Cix

            Strange post.

          • JesuSaveSouls

            Strange things happening all over.

          • JesuSaveSouls

            It’s not religion for me but a way of life…my only way of life.The source of life.

        • Cix

          Thanks Jolly, a lot of strange comments on this article. Your seems sensible, thank you! :)

        • Trenix

          Aasd is triggered because he’s a homosexual. He flips out on this guy every time for the same reason. I think he has a crush on him.

        • JesuSaveSouls

          Thanks and I downloaded the software on the quest but haven’t tried it.I use the quest to go on steamvr with vrdesktop and it’s a workout itself.Really thanks.Jesusaves!

      • JesuSaveSouls

        Aasd…bless you and have a wonderful day and full satisfying life.May God not hold account against you but that you be forgiven and receive Christ as your Lord and Savior !

    • Cix

      Not sure how Jesus has to do with a VR article, so I don’t think I’ll bite here.

      • JesuSaveSouls

        Though heaven and earth pass away my Word remains.

      • BasementBoi

        Jesus created a strange virtual reality universe called christian religion

    • SataNeedSoulsToo

      SataNeedSoulsToo !

  • The Bard

    Idiotic idea once again. Imagine how you would sweat in 1 minute. The whole face sweating, lens fogging. The ONLY remedy for sweating is a fan in room. slow rotating fan. but that would not work for physical excercises.

    • snowy007

      I don’t see how a calorie tracker would make you sweat in a minute… And there are plenty of people that would find it interesting to know how much calories they burn from the games they play.
      Unless you just generally mean that fitness games are a bad idea, but those already exist, are played a lot, and is not what this article is about.
      I’ve been playing games, most where not even fitness games, that made me sweat a lot and had me laying down tired on the floor after a while. But i never had any issues with fog on the lenses.
      And face sweating is pretty normal, even for normal exercise outside of VR. So if that is what makes fitness games a stupid idea, I guess normal fitness is also stupid. :)

      • Agree with you. Sweating in VR is just like sweating playing squash or tennis. No different. Dump your gym gear in the washing machine after a sweaty session and in this case, a face pad.

        • adasd

          none of those sports you mentioned require electronic hardware to be on your face where sweat is accumulating. if the face pad gets too sweaty, it can ruin the electronics. its happened on many devices as well, just look it up.

          • Cix

            It does happen on devices, but don’t you think think the hardware developers are aware of this? The headsets have become more sweat resistant over time. The original Vive, well I killed 3 of them with sweat.

          • AJ Shewki

            I can attest to this — in fact, we still have the video of the VIVE dying, mid filming, from sweat… :D

    • Cix

      For many, the alternative is sitting on a couch playing a console. If people are doing it, it’s working. Many people have reported losing double digit pounds by using VR as a fitness device. If they can handle the inconvenience of having something on their face, it’s a win win. Please note this is still early generations of this hardware, and will be better for these purposes over time.

  • Nice idea, but 1.1M?? Really? I am developing a mixed reality fitness game (HitMotion: Reloaded)… so should I get 1M as well? Where is my money?

    • snowy007

      Sure. All you need to do is convince someone that your project is worth investing 1M in.

    • adasd

      if anyone should get 1.1M for a project its you Tony. You have proven time n time again how in tune you are to the industry with your videos.

    • Cix

      Where is your money? Considering you work with Vive Focus could probably push for investment from Vive X or a grant from Oculus. The issue with content is it’s hit driven and very hard to maintain relevance over time. Becomes a harder thing to sell for investors. I do wish you luck though, and will reach out. Thanks!

  • Cix

    Wow, so many nice comments to go through here. :D

  • Joe Fecarotta

    I think fitness in VR is 1000% happening. Great work @cix_liv:disqus !