SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Venture Reality Fund (“The VR Fund”), a leading global venture capital firm focused on early-stage investments in the augmented, virtual and mixed reality (AR/VR/MR) spaces, and Yahoo! Japan Corporation (“Yahoo! Japan”, TYO:4689), announced a joint effort to inspire innovation and accelerate growth in the AR and VR industries. Yahoo! Japan is the leading media company in Japan with over 90 million daily unique browsers across its mobile and online properties in e-commerce, advertising and rich media. The VR Fund is one of the most active and experienced venture investors in the sector, and its comprehensive portfolio consists of early-stage startups developing content, infrastructure, platforms and tools for the broader global ecosystem.
“Yahoo! Japan and its leadership team are known for their commitment to continuous innovation and enriching services for their users and community,” said Marco DeMiroz, co-founder and general partner of The VR Fund. “Immersive technologies in AR and VR have great potential to revolutionize business, empower consumers, revitalize the economy and drive awareness and positive change in the world. Yahoo! Japan’s investment will help cultivate and scale new technologies and applications that can transform content consumption and commerce for the consumer.”
Under the partnership, The VR Fund will provide Yahoo! Japan deep insights to the AR/VR sector as well as early access to leading AR and VR innovators, which will drive Yahoo! Japan’s investment into AR/VR startups and potential business development. The VR Fund’s investment portfolio will, in turn, benefit from Yahoo! Japan’s unparalleled insights into internet business and consumers in Japan.
“We’re excited to partner with The VR Fund to accelerate the growth of some of the world’s most promising AR and VR technologies,” said Yuichiro Tanakamaru, corporate development manager of Yahoo! Japan. “We believe that AR and VR have the potential to transform consumer behaviors for media, shopping, social interaction, and other content and commerce dimensions, which will inevitably drive substantial economic growth across the globe. We look forward to working closely with The VR Fund to identify and promote the best and the brightest in the space.”
The combined worldwide market size for AR and VR is expected to exceed $143 billion by 2020, an annual growth rate of 198.0% over the 2015-2020 forecast period. The VR Fund is part of Yahoo! Japan’s growing network of partners cultivating new technologies for its continued growth and development.
About The Venture Reality Fund:
The Venture Reality Fund (“The VR Fund”) is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage investments in the virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) spaces. The firm invests globally in innovative companies across a wide variety of sectors from infrastructure and development tools to content and applications, to help entrepreneurs bring industry-defining technology to market faster. The firm’s first successful exit, Owlchemy Labs, closed within The VR Fund’s first year of operation.
As part of its commitment to educating and strengthening the ecosystem, The VR Fund publishes industry insights including quarterly global VR and AR landscapes detailing the market’s growth, new investments and increased international impact. The founding team is also a proud partner of the Women in XR initiative, which connects female founders and women-led businesses to capital and resources.
For more information, please visit TheVRFund.com, like The VR Fund on Facebook and follow on LinkedIn and Twitter.
About Yahoo! Japan Corporation: Yahoo Japan Corporation was founded in 1996 and operates Yahoo! JAPAN, one of the largest portal sites, in Japan. Offering more than 100 services including search, news and e-commerce via PC and smart devices, Yahoo! JAPAN serves more than 90 million daily unique browsers, and 70 billion monthly page views on average. The total number of downloads for iOS and Android applications released by Yahoo Japan Corporation exceeds 480 million. For more information, please visit http://ir.yahoo.co.jp/en/.
