FOVE, the virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display (HMD) manufacturer launched a Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign back in May 2015. The campaign was a success raising $480,000 USD to bring the project to life. The company has posted numerous updates since then on its progress, and today its announced the close of a Series A funding round. Led by Colopl VR Fund with the participation of Hon Hai venture capital fund, 2020, and Samsung Venture Investment, FOVE has now attained $11 million USD.
Back in January VRFocus reported on Japanese mobile videogame developer COLOPL creating a $50 million fund specifically for VR. Some of that has now gone to FOVE strengthen the company’s mid- to long-term R&D capabilities and reinforce business support in VR content creation featuring eye-tracking technology.
“Taking the VR experience one step further, we are thrilled to have the support of COLOPL, Hon Hai and Samsung. This will help us achieve our goal of creating a more pleasing VR experience that will have a lasting impact on the growing number of users interested in eye-tracking technology.” says Yuka Kojima, FOVE, Inc.’s CEO and co-founder.
Unlike the major HMD companies with their headsets, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR, the FOVE device has eye-tracking built in as one of its main features, in addition to head and position-tracking.
The company’s most recent update on its Kickstarter page lists a Fall 2016 shipping date, having slipped from Spring 2016. VRFocus will continue its coverage of FOVE, reproting back any further updates.
