Owlchemy Labs, Inc.
August 3, 2016
Austin, TX – Leading virtual reality developer Owlchemy Labs today announced its $5 million Series A financing led by Qualcomm Incorporated, through its venture investment group, Qualcomm Ventures. Joining the round are HTC, The VR Fund, Colopl VR Fund, Capital Factory, and other Austin technology investors. Owlchemy will use this investment to grow its content development teams, create original virtual reality (VR) software, and build technology that pushes the limits of VR across multiple platforms.
“VR has been a deep passion of ours for many years and being at the forefront of designing new virtual worlds is truly a dream for our whole team,” says Owlchemy Labs CEO Alex Schwartz. “We’ve solved some of the toughest design and development challenges in this new medium, and with this investment we’ll apply these lessons to a portfolio of full games.”
Founded in 2010, Owlchemy Labs has combined its deep love of game design, user experience, narrative, and humor to create compelling experiences for current and next-generation VR platforms. Their original title “Job Simulator” has been hailed as one of the defining VR experiences, debuting as a bundled game with the HTC Vive, and as a launch title for Oculus Touch and the upcoming PlayStation VR.
“Qualcomm Ventures has made significant investments in early stage frontier technologies, such as virtual reality, and is continuously looking to identify category leaders in this space. We believe that Owlchemy has proven their ability to stand at the forefront of the VR movement with their innovative approach to developing leading VR experiences, and we look forward to working with Owlchemy as they continue to lead the way in developing original content and compelling VR technologies and solutions,” said Richard Tapalaga, senior investment manager, Qualcomm Ventures.
Owlchemy is continuing to expand “Job Simulator” with new content, and recently announced a partnership with Adult Swim to bring hit animated series “Rick and Morty” into virtual reality. Both titles, along with forthcoming unannounced titles, are powered by the company’s proprietary “Owlchemy VR” technology, enabling rapid simultaneous development across multiple VR platforms.
Full funding announcement blog post can be found here: http://owlchemylabs.com/owlchemy-closes-investment-round-for-vr/
About Owlchemy Labs:
Founded in 2010 with the mission to build absurd and polished games, Owlchemy Labs has developed and published multiple original gaming titles spanning over 20 desktop and mobile platforms, including one of the first VR-enabled games on Steam. Their titles include Job Simulator (a Sundance Official Selection), the Adult Swim published Rick and Morty Simulator: Virtual Rick-ality, and the award winning desktop and mobile games Dyscourse, Jack Lumber, Snuggle Truck, and the Dejobaan collaboration, Aaaaaculus!
Owlchemy continues to share VR knowledge with the community as the founders of the 2000 member strong VR Austin group and as speakers on VR around the world. More information about Owlchemy Labs can be found at http://owlchemylabs.com.