Investing in VR & AR Opportunities and Challenges | Panel
5Panelists: Cliff Plumer, President Jaunt Studios, Jaunt VR; Alex Taussig, General Partner, Highland Capital; Tipatat Chennavasin, TipatatVR; Moderator: Marco DeMiroz, Managing Director, Evolution Media Capital
Delivered at Casual Connect USA 2015
Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus kickstarted the Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) sectors and since then there has been an unprecedented world-wide interest, investments and efforts in VR/AR by every major technology, media and entertainment company. VR and AR have the potential to dramatically transform the way consumers and enterprises consume and process content across most of the sectors; from films, gaming, travel, medicine, education to many others. In the last twelve months there has been an explosion of starts-ups innovating new camera designs, production software and publishing technologies as well as those that create original content for gaming and other entertainment. The challenge for these start-ups and venture investors is the uncertain adoption and growth dynamics of VR & AR. Google Cardboard accelerates the user base but there is still the fundamental question about initial market size and how fast it can grow to build viable businesses. As a result, the capital needs for VR/AR start-ups are yet to be defined to match the expected market growth. The Investor Panel will discuss the significant opportunities driven by VR&AR as well as the corresponding challenges affected by uncertain market adoption dynamics.