VR Company Vrse Rebrands Itself As Within, Adds Funding Round
Los Angeles-based Vrse, known as a VR company specializing in making VR films, is rebranding its name to Within. Along this name change is a $12.56-million funding round from VC (venture capital) firm Andreessen Horowitz and movie studio 21st Century Fox.
The reason behind Vrse’s rebranding is more than just a simple name change, but an attempt to make the company’s name parallel to what it offers. According to Drew Larner, Within’s CEO, they wanted a brand name that tells something more about what their mission is.
As Vrse, the company has helped the New York Times in creating their first VR projects.
VR is steadily rising as the future of entertainment and media consumption, and its immersive nature allures to a variety of audiences. It has become one of the hottest pieces of tech this year, with huge funding rounds from VC firms coming into VR hardware. While the chunk of VR is made for gaming, Within is one of the VR companies that is aimed on creative immersive VR movies such as short films and narratives.
Within’s funding round was led by Andreessen Horowitz for its “Series A” funding, followed by major Hollywood studio 21st Century Fox. Fox took stake in various VR developments, including the creation of companion VR experiences for its popular films “The Martian” and “Wild”. In addition, Fox has ventured into Osterhout Design Group, a company making VR “smartglasses”.
No word has come out of Within as to whether they would disclose an official valuation for their company. But the company stated that the majority of its new funding will be pushed towards employing more creatives and engineers, as well as to fund the development of their own technology and create more content.
For more information about Within, please visit the following websites:
http://with.in
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-16/andreessen-horowitz-fox-invest-in-virtual-reality-startup-vrse
http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/16/11909160/vrse-within-virtual-reality-name-change-funding
