JauntVR has completed its Series C round of funding, with the Walt Disney Company being among the top investors, offering a whopping $66 million.
The news is the latest indication that media companies such as Disney are extremely interested in VR, and will want to be a part of it before it is offered to the public on a wide scale.
JauntVR itself has been developing its own end-to-end virtual reality content platform, including a 360-degree camera that can capture high-end 360-degree footage. Software for the footage stitches it together. The funding was announced by the company today and brings funding up to a massive $100 million.
The company says that it will be using the money to scale up its operations and to continue its growth worldwide. Jaunt itself hopes to become the go-to platform for film makers, advertisers and others in the entertainment industry who are starting to use VR more and more as time goes on and the technology develops.
Virtual reality isn't limited to any particular industry, however. Cinematic VR alone is being used to shoot everything from concerts to sports matches. It is also being used in journalism, with ABC having recently released a video depicting life in Syria.
One of the main focuses of this particular funding will be on hardware, along with the software that partners use for their video.
With Disney having offered so much money, some are wondering if the company will eventually use VR for feature films. Despite this, Jaunt CEO Jens Christensen says that he doesn't think this is the case.
"I do expect people to start doing more and more in VR, [and] eventually people will be doing feature-length entertainment," said Christensen in an interview with Fast Company. "Right now, with the state of the devices, I don't think people will want to wear [bulky headsets] for two-hour features. They need to get a lot lighter."
Via: Fast Company
