Los Angeles-headquartered virtual reality (VR) concert platform AmazeVR has closed a $15m (£10.9m/€13m) round of funding, to support the roll-out of VR live music performances.
Investors in the company, which also has offices in Seoul, include Partners Investment, Smilegate Investment, Quantum Ventures Korea, ABC Partners, Everrich Group, and GS Futures, the corporate venture capital arm of a major Korean conglomerate.
The new backing is in addition to other investors including CJ Group’s venture capital arm Timewise Investment, LG Technology Ventures, Mirae Asset Capital, Mirae Asset Venture Investment and Murex Partners. Further investors include Dunamu Partners, Base Investment and We Ventures.
In previous bridge financing, AmazeVR raised $9.5m and brings the company’s total to $30.8m.
Spring this year will see an innovative VR concert tour rolled out across a number of AMC Theatres in the US, featuring artist Megan Thee Stallion. The concert will be created for viewers using technology such as 9K cameras and software that can cope with the audience using up to 100 VR headsets at a time.
AmazeVR’s vision is to release new VR concert experiences weekly by 2024 in theatres and for those wanting to watch from home.
AmazeVR co-chief executive Ernest Lee said: “This funding allows us to keep hiring aggressively. In 2021, we tripled our team in Hollywood and Seoul. We’ve been able to attract top talent from the industries we touch, including creatives who have worked with artists such as Kanye West and Cardi B; a former marketing director at Live Nation; a film buyer for Regal/Cinemark and an AI [artificial intelligence] engineer from NVIDIA.”
He added: “This puts us in an ideal position to take full advantage of VR and the metaverse’s growing popularity, as we deliver breathtaking VR concerts from major artists, first to theatres, then to homes worldwide.”
AmazeVR will continue with its funding and will raise a Series B in the coming months.
Lee added: “VR can finally blow all 2D experiences out of the water. Thanks to our tech, we can evoke a real sense of presence you can’t get from a screen, the feeling that your favourite artist is right there, face to face with you.
“This opens up a new dimension for music, one of the first new ways for artists and fans to connect since recordings appeared. We’re thrilled that investors are grasping this and are supporting us as we innovate and grow.”
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