According to Digi-Capital’s latest report, AR and VR investors laid out over $800 million in the second quarter of this year up on Q1. For the last 12 months, over $2 billion has been invested throughout the 27 AR/VR sectors. The four other big investment sectors were video, games, peripherals and smart-glasses, which together with tech accounted for just under 90% of all AR/VR investment.
Whilst the record for investment was $1.2 billion in the first quarter last year, with $2.4 billion for the 12-month period, Q2 of this year saw an investment record for a quarter when Magic Leap, with its head-mounted virtual retinal display development, was not taking all the cash.
Digi Capital Mobile AR VR Investment LTM to Q2 2017 – Click for high resolution
Later stage deals accounted for most of the investment money but AR/VR investment saw the highest volume of investments from pre-seed through Series A. However, Facebook’s Camera Effects Platform and Apple ARKit for iOS, which may feature in some form in the iPhone 8 release, look set to turn attention to the mobile AR developer ecosystem.
Digi-Capital forecast $60 billion revenue for mobile AR in five years’ time and over a billion users and, the big changes brought about by Apple, Facebook, Google and others, is set to change how we see the world. If AR/VR investment dealmakers pick the right opportunity at the right time, that would make them “the geniuses and visionaries of tomorrow”.
Digi Capital’s graphic of AR VR Dealmakers – Click for higher resolution
