Oculus VR has raised $75 million in Series B funding to help bring its Oculus Rift virtual reality headset to market, the company announced today. Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz led the round of funding, with additional investment from Spark Capital, Matrix Partners, and Formation|8.
Andreessen Horowitz was founded in 2009 by angel investors Marc Andreessen (co-author of Mosaic, one of the world's first Web browsers) and Ben Horowitz. As part of the funding, Andreessen will join Oculus VR's board of directors.
"We believe Oculus will not only alter the gaming landscape but will redefine fundamental human experiences in areas like film, education, architecture, and design. Oculus is at the tip of the iceberg of its potential, and we're incredibly excited to help them change the world," Andreessen said in a statement.
"This additional infusion of capital, as well as the leadership and experience of Marc Andreessen, will help us take the final steps toward our ultimate goal: making virtual reality something consumers everywhere can enjoy," Oculus VR Brendan Iribe added.
This new funding adds to Oculus VR's previous round of $16 million in Series A and $2.4 million through the device's original Kickstarter campaign. More than 40,000 Oculus Rift development kits have been sold to developers so far, the company said.
"The games industry is well past the point where more pixels, texels, flops, and frames displayed on the same fixed screens are really changing the experiences that players get," Oculus VR CTO John Carmack said. "I could say the same about other digital experiences as well. What will revolutionize gaming, and interactive content in general, is putting people inside the digital world. That is our goal at Oculus, and this Series B will help us get there."
Carmack officially quit id Software last month to take a full-time job at Oculus VR.
The Oculus Rift headset remains in development at Oculus VR, though no release date has been announced yet for the commercial version, which is expected to be available for $300 when it does launch. Development kits went out to developers earlier this year.
