Tower 26 Venture Fund Raises $50M for VR Games, Metaverse: Report

Despite the early fumbles of the virtual reality (VR) market, there’s enough new momentum in the sector to spin up a new $50 million fund to invest in VR opportunities alongside the metaverse, said Jon Goldman, an experienced game investor and former studio executive.

• In a VentureBeat report, Goldman said his new fund will focus “mostly on VR gaming” but also the metaverse. The fund is named after the Tower 26 lifeguard tower in Venice, California.
• Goldman said blockchain games are “interesting,” but it won’t be the primary focus of the fund.
• Goldman was the founder of Foundation 9 Entertainment, which created games based on “Star Wars,” “The Matrix,” “The Simpsons” and “Lord of the Rings”.
• This is the second gaming fund for Goldman after the GC Tracker Fund, which was a $15 million fund for seed investments in gaming VR and AR.
• The GC Tracker Fund launched in the early days of VR gaming, and most of the companies in the fund did not survive the “trough of disillusionment” after VR failed to take off in 2016.
• Goldman said that only 30% of the VR fund is still viable.
• In the time since, the number of VR headsets owned by the public has hit approximately 3 million and the playtime has increased significantly but VR still remains a niche form factor for gaming.