Today Jaunt (my employer) announces we’ve closed our Series C round, raising $65 million. This complements our Series A of $6.8M and Series B of $27.8M, putting us around $100 million in total funding. You can read the press release here.
Over the past year, we’ve been working tirelessly, laying the groundwork to significantly scale the company upwards. Since June of 2014, we’ve increased the number of employees seven-fold, spanning all areas: production, business development, computational photography, hardware, application development, data science, and more. We’ve created a beautiful bespoke camera, designed from the ground up for capturing the world in 360 degrees. We’ve developed a portal for creative professionals that will easily accomodate dozens if not hundreds of VR projects simultaneously. We’ve opened Jaunt Studios in Los Angeles. And we’ve made possible immersive content like concerts with Paul McCartney and Jack White, base jumping and rock climbing with The North Face, a trip to Paul Feig’s Other Space, and a visit to heritage sites in present-day Damascus, Syria with ABC News.
The availability of high quality, engaging content is paramount to the long term success of cinematic virtual reality as a medium. To that end, we’re pleased to have world-class companies express their confidence in Jaunt’s tools, technology, and leadership. The Walt Disney Company, Evolution Media Partners, and China Media Capital (CMC) led this latest round. The press release says it best:
“With these new additions, Jaunt’s investor group offers a global network of deep ties to the largest brands, franchises, talent and technologies, across all entertainment and media, as well as partners who add unique perspective and experience as Jaunt continues to expand and innovate.”
What does this mean for you? If you’re a content creator, this new chapter will enable us to take on more partners and ramp up our camera manufacturing, giving you the hardware and software you need to create premium 3D 360 VR content. If you’re a consumer, it means we’ll have the resources to ensure our content will work across as many platforms as possible, whether it’s Google Cardboard, Oculus Rift, Playstation VR, HTC Vive, OSVR, or whatever else comes along. If you’re a brand, it means you’ll have another way to tell your story and connect with consumers in a deeper and more meaningful way.
We’re just getting started. Stay tuned for more announcements and content in the very near future.
Originally published at medium.com on September 21, 2015.