HTC announced on Wednesday at the Mobile World Congress in Shanghai that it will establish a Virtual Reality Venture Capital Alliance (VRVCA). As reported by Sina Tech, this alliance will consist of 28 VR investment companies, including Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners, Jack Ma’s Yunfeng Capital, and HTC Vive, the VR subsidiary that spun off from HTC on Wednesday.
The alliance will pool over USD 10 billion for investments in virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR). Startups working on VR technologies, hardware, content, platforms, tools, peripherals and accessories may expect to get a helping hand from the alliance.
Prior to the establishment of the VRVCA, HTC launched an accelerator program named Vive X in April, into which the company promised to invest more than USD 100 million for the development of VR content and technologies for the formation of a VR ecosystem.
According to Alvin Wang, HTC’s China Regional President of VR, Vive X had received more than 1,200 applications from VR startups. These applications came from over 30 countries or regions, covering Asia, Europe, North America and South America. Over half of the applicants were from China. The approved teams will move to offices provided by HTC in Beijing, Taipei, and San Francisco in early July.
Goldman Sachs predicted that the market for VR and AR will reach USD 80 billion by 2025, about the size of the current desktop PC market. Yet Wang believed that this prediction has underestimated the possibilities of VR, considering the potential role that may be played by China, where the VR market is becoming overwhelmingly popular.
(Top photo from Sohu IT)