Nizel Pradhan
Coming fresh off the success of Megan Thee Stallion’s virtual reality (VR) concert tour and joint venture (JV) partnership with K-pop giant SM Entertainment (known as “Studio A”), industry-leading VR concert production company AmazeVR has raised $17M in new investments, with the continued opportunity for interested investors to join the current round. This ongoing round joins the $15M bridge round that was raised in 2021, and puts AmazeVR’s current Series B raise at $32M.
AmazeVR was founded in 2015, and has since dominated the VR concert market as the first and only company, using its exclusive and proprietary technology, to capture hyper-real 9K+ live-action footage of artists performing. Giving fans front-row seats to their favorite artists in 3D stage environments, AmazeVR delivers premium high-definition VR experiences, truly transforming VR concerts to be easily scalable and faster to produce.
As one of the few VR startups to overcome the pandemic and thrive, AmazeVR has emerged with a great reputation as an innovator in the music industry. Their work in producing Megan Thee Stallion’s VR tour, hosted through a partnership with AMC Theatres, brought them to 15 major cities across the US with a 75% attendance rate for its VR concerts. Plans are underway to work with some of the biggest names in music, both in the US and Korea. AmazeVR is continuing discussions with chart-topping artists in the US for their next concert production, and has formed a JV with SM Entertainment to produce upcoming VR concerts for select K-pop artists.
Despite economic and market uncertainty in Q2 of 2022, a time when venture investments have decreased by 23% QoQ, AmazeVR finalized this $17M raise and has gathered continued support from investors. Past AmazeVR investors are re-upping their interests, including Mirae Asset Capital, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, CJ Investment, Smilegate Investment, GS Futures, and LG Technology Ventures. New strategic investors will join, including CJ ENM and Krafton.
The round will remain open until late December 2022 with space available for interested strategic partners.
“What AmazeVR has developed is truly top-notch. The VR entertainment industry is growing rapidly, and we believe that music and gaming are two of the most promising sectors for future development,” says CJ ENM. “CJ ENM plans to convert concerts and music TV shows to VR music experiences with AmazeVR’s prime technology, and convert additional original content such as dramas and movies in the future to maximize their content value and business opportunities.”
“We’re so excited to lead the new paradigm of entertainment by collaborating with AmazeVR, who is leading the VR industry through its proprietary premium VR content creation technology,” added Ho-Sung Kang, CEO of CJ ENM.
AmazeVR is leading VR concert production and online distribution ahead of some exciting launches in 2023, including next-generation headsets such as the Meta Quest Pro (October 2022) and Apple’s own VR headset. With the current round of funding, AmazeVR has plans to expand partnerships with artists, artist management companies, labels, publishers, and agencies. The company has plans to hire more AI engineers, Unreal Engine engineers, and VFX artists to continue the advancement of its proprietary technology and the development of premier VR concerts. AmazeVR is preparing to launch its music metaverse service across all major VR app stores in 1H 2023 with a line-up of emerging artists to include platinum artist Megan Thee Stallion.
“With the support of our dedicated investment partners, we’re excited to enter the next age of VR concerts and deliver really amazing performances online to all VR users,” says AmazeVR CEO Ernest Lee. “We are talking to iconic names in music to continue to bring the best experiences to their fans.”
About AmazeVR
AmazeVR is a VR concert platform company that brings fans closer to artists than ever before.
Headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in Seoul, AmazeVR creates experiences with renowned, bold artists, featuring crystal clarity and unprecedented proximity through live-action 3D footage combined with environments using a proprietary Unreal Engine-based VFX pipeline.
AmazeVR creates VR concerts in fantastical new worlds that are widely accessible to fans, distributing through movie theaters and eventually at-home VR. For more information, visit amazevr.com.
About CJ ENM
CJ ENM is a leading entertainment company founded in Korea in 1995. CJ ENM’s Entertainment division is engaged in a wide range of industry business areas, including media content, music, film and performing arts, providing its leading original content to various media platforms around the world. CJ ENM has created, produced and distributed globally-acclaimed content, including Oscar-winning film “Parasite,” Tony Award-winning musical “Kinky Boots,” record-breaking Korean films including “Roaring Currents” and TV series such as “Guardian: The Lonely and Great God,” “I Can See Your Voice” and more. United under the slogan “We live to discover Untold Originals,” CJ ENM has three major production and distribution studios: drama production powerhouse Studio Dragon, U.S.-based studio Endeavor Content and K-OTT content production studio CJ ENM STUDIOS. CJ ENM also presents KCON, the world’s No.1 K-Culture festival, and MAMA Awards, the world’s No.1 K-pop music awards show, in order to bring K-culture experiences to people all over the world. To learn more about CJ ENM, please visit: http://www.cjenm.com
