Oculus Rift attracts $16m in additional funding

Virtual reality startup Oculus has attracted Series A funding of $16m to back the headline-grabbing Oculus Rift.

The fund-raising endeavour was led by Spark Capital and Matrix Partners. Santo Politi and Antonio Rodriguez, execs at the respective firms, have now also joined the Oculus board of directors.

The company says the additional funds will be used to accelerate the development of virtual reality hardware, software and services, ultimately creating a full virtual reality platform for consumers”.

Oculus successfully raised $2.437m on Kickstarter late last year.

"With the recent console announcements and the advent of stronger mobile technology, we’re watching the video game industry keenly," Spark’s Politi stated.

"In our estimation, Oculus is one of the only companies in the space with something completely new and disruptive. They have the right team, capital and vision to take virtual reality beyond console gaming and into everyday computing."

Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe added: "What better way to mark our first anniversary than to announce our next phase of growth. There are still many challenging problems to solve, but with the support of these great investment partners, and our passionate community, we will continue to hire the brightest minds and stay laser focused on delivering the very best virtual reality platform possible."