Viewpoints: March 2023 wrap-up

Welcome to this month’s curated digest of viewpoints, news and investment activity covering the Metaverse, XR and Spatial Computing - brought to you by FOV Ventures. This month we are announcing an expansion of our team, and covering some great moves from our portfolio companies.

We will be covering:

• FOV News: Bigger team, deeper insights

• Portfolio news: Move.ai, RLTY and Port 6 updates

• Funding and acquistions

• Data points

Dave Haynes, Petri Rajahalme and Sointu Karjalainen (FOV Ventures)

FOV News: Bigger team, deeper insights

The FOV Ventures team is growing with the addition of Sointu Karjalainen, a previous founder herself and a passionate builder of positive communities. Sointu is joining as our Head Of Platform and will be taking a lead on initiatives that support our portfolio and the broader community around FOV Ventures. One of these initiatives is DVRSTY, which aims to find and support female founders creating companies within the Metaverse. Applications for DVRSTY close very soon, so make sure to check it out if you haven't already.

In other news, we're excited to release some new analysis on the VR gaming sector. At the beginning of the year we identified consumer VR as a key area of interest of the fund for 2023. So we worked closely with Cassia Curran of the Curran Games Agency who has collated and analysed data from the Meta Quest Store to uncover a number of insights.

Portfolio news: Move.ai, RLTY and Port 6 updated

The FOV portfolio grew again in March, but these new investments have yet to be announced, so you'll need to keep your eyes peeled for updates. In the meantime, here's some of the main news from our existing companies.

• Kudos to Move.ai for clinching the #SXSW Innovation Award in Immersive Technology! Check out all the winners here

• RLTY joins forces with ReadyPlayerMe to streamline avatar creation for brands in the Metaverse, whilst also unveiling the "Cristóbal Balenciaga New Code" Decentraland collection.

• Don't miss this in-depth interview with the co-founders at Port 6 on the excellent #theARshow podcast! Listen and share the love

Funding and acquisitions

March so no overall trends when it came to investments. The largest funding round went to automotive AR company Envisics, which raised $50m in funding as the industry continues to take an interest in immersive technologies. The runner-up was DressX, a digital fashion house, who raised $30m to integrate further with VR and AR. OQmented was just behind, focusing on AR display tech; the company raised $20m to help it expand further.

Construction-esque companies saw interest too, one building the groundwork for the metaverse while the other would build on top of it. For example, Hadean raised $5m in funding to help build its metaverse infrastructure. Meanwhile Landvault - a metaverse 'construction' company - raised $3m to help its ambitions to build on platforms.

Other companies saw funding for differing areas. Hexa raised $20.5m to help e-commerce companies browse in VR and AR. Tangle raised $4m in funding to develop its virtual workplace platform, while Healium, a biofeedback company, raised $3.6m in funding. Flying Sheep Studios, who is working on a metaverse game, raised $1.2m from an interesting source - the German government.

Finally, Rebel Girls - a media brand focused on women - received $8m in funding to expand into new areas like the metaverse, with plans this year for Roblox and Minecraft.

Data points

• $586.7m: Amount of metaverse VC funding in Q1 2023, according to Axios.

• 42%: Percentage of Gen Z shoppers who engage with brands via web3 technologies 

• 27%: Percentage of millenials who use web3 technologies for the same reason.

• 200%: Increase in sales volume during Metaverse Fashion Week, according to DappRadar. 

• 110: Median sales per Quest rating in the Meta Store, according to analysis from Cassia Curran (in collaboration with us). The number can go up 250x depending on the title, such as Among Us VR.

That’s all for now. Have a great April, and as always, please do send us your feedback, comments, or any interesting new startups you know of in this space.

Dave Haynes, Petri Rajahalme and Sointu Karjalainen (FOV Ventures)

http://fov.ventures