LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vrse Inc. (“Vrse”), a virtual reality media and technology company, announced today that it has appointed 20 year media, technology and finance industry veteran, Drew Larner as Chief Operating Officer.
Prior to joining Vrse, Larner served as CEO of Rdio, the global music streaming service founded by Janus Friis, one of the co-creators of Skype, since its founding in 2008 through 2013, and remains as Vice-Chairman of the company. Previously, Larner was a Managing Director at Europlay Capital Advisors, a technology and media advisory firm and seed stage investor. And, before joining Europlay, he spent over 12 years as an executive in the motion picture industry.
“I’m very happy to welcome Drew to Vrse,” said Chris Milk, co-founder of Vrse. “His deep experience in various media industries lends itself perfectly to defining the business of virtual reality media. In his role, Drew will lead efforts scaling our business, and grow Vrse as the premier destination to experience stories in virtual reality from some of the best creators in the world.”
“Virtual reality will transform media consumption and the way we experience stories,” said Larner. “I look forward to working closely with two exceptional founders to realize Vrse’s vision to be the leading storytelling company for virtual reality.”
Milk co-founded Vrse to develop advanced technology for telling stories in virtual reality with leading media technologist and founder of the Google Data Arts Team, Aaron Koblin. Milk and Koblin have collaborated for the last 10 years on several groundbreaking projects, seamlessly blending consumer technology and entertainment -- such as Arcade Fire’s integration of Google Earth in their “Wilderness Downtown.”
In addition to the executive team growth, the company also announced that it took in seed funding, closing in April 2015, from various investors from the media and technology universes such as Andreessen Horowitz, YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, Raine Ventures, WME, Live Nation, Vice Media, Marker LLC., Tribeca Enterprises, Annapurna Pictures, Legendary Pictures, and Elisabeth Murdoch’s Freelands Ventures.
You can find a high res image here.
You can also find embed codes for all Vrse films here. You can embed the Vrse player right in your website to give readers a taste of the content in 360, or if consuming on mobile it will prompt for cardboard or a headset right from your site.
Vrse is available today across all major VR headsets, as well as iOS, Android and mobile web at www.vrse.com, and houses a curated collection of the highest quality narrative, story-driven content available today in virtual reality.
About Vrse Inc.
Vrse is a virtual reality media and technology company. Founded in 2014 by lauded director Chris Milk and visionary technologist Aaron Koblin, Vrse is developing advanced technology for telling stories in immersive media. Vrse is available across all major VR headsets, as well as iOS and Android, and houses a curated collection of the highest quality narrative, story-driven content available today in virtual reality. Sister company Vrse.works has partnered with top talent in film and TV and represents a world class roster of directors for virtual reality content creation. The company has already produced groundbreaking and award winning immersive content such as “Clouds over Sidra” with the United Nations, and work with the New York Times, Vice, NBC, and Nike. Vrse.farm is working in partnership with Megan Ellison and Annapurna Pictures to develop original cinematic work in virtual reality, bringing the best and brightest in the film and tech worlds together to invent new stories for this new medium.
