vTime, the Liverpool-headquartered social network that allows people to socialise with family and friends in virtual reality (VR), has raised $7.6m in funding.
The Series A round was led by Deepbridge Capital, utilising the Enterprise Investment Scheme, and also included investment from Liverpool-based institutional loan and equity provider MSIF.
Bootstrapped from launch by founder and CEO Martin Kenwright, the investment will accelerate global growth and product development, and fuel R&D for the brand’s augmented reality (AR) experience coming later in the year.
“vTime offers users the most immersive and intuitive way to engage with others in VR from wherever they are,” Kenwright said.
“The advent of consumer AR at scale is allowing us to use decades of expertise to develop another unique way to connect and engage with friends and family in alternate realities.
“Crucially, Deepbridge share our vision for the future – both in delivering a matchless social XR experience and our expansive plans to monetise and build upon the vTime framework with future technologies.”
Ray Eugeni, partner at Deepbridge Capital, added: “vTime perfectly represents the innovative and disruptive technologies that we at Deepbridge provide investment for.
“We are delighted to be working in partnership with the vTime team and are excited by the future opportunities for vTime’s market-leading virtual reality and augmented reality technologies.”
vTime continues to grow through a recruitment drive to bolster the core development and management teams of over 40 people in both its UK Liverpool headquarters and in the US.