This virtual reality startup is being backed by a short ton of movie studios — but ‘VR’ from its name is dropping. Movie studios are peeking to see if virtual reality gains traction to affect their company. Cash is being put by more daring ones there. Choose a startup that’s created a name for itself, Vrse. And it’s switching its name: The Los Angeles-based generation and software company is currently Within, a name that “signifies storytelling as human encounter,” writes CEO Chris Milk, a filmmaker comfortable to the TED conference and Sundance circuits.
The term can also be tied, to bubbles, in many corners. VR firms don’t have any trouble raising cash while exuberant startup financing has dried up. Yet there’s lots of doubt about the potential of the area.
“There’s lots of hype lately,” Aaron Koblin, Milk’s cofounder and CTO, told Recode. We nevertheless call movie movie despite the fact that it’s nothing regarding picture.”
“We’re attempting to create a visceral embodiment of dreams and things that really could’t be in existence,” Koblin said.
The startup can be in the content game: It’s declaring the launch of a program, which showcases its work, on the expensive VR hardware from HTC and Facebook’s Oculus.
That operational version — creation studio plus content that is distributed — places Within in competition with some other players, for example, well-financed Jaunt.
That does’t faze Andreessen Horowitz, which directed this Series A. and the startup’s seed capital
Koblin said that its new funds will visit enlarging its staff, now and enhancing its products.
“It’s really early times.”