Varjo, the Finnish virtual reality (VR) company behind headsets like the mixed reality XR-1 and the new VR-2/VR-2 Pro has been enjoying an influx of investment in 2020. Last month the company announced it had been awarded an Epic Megagrant and today it has confirmed the closure of a Series C funding round of $54 million USD.
Existing investors including Lifeline Ventures, Atomico, EQT Ventures and Volvo Cars Tech Fund participated, whilst the round also saw Tesi, NordicNinja, and Swisscanto Invest by Zürcher Kantonalbank invest for the first time. Varjo also announced that Timo Toikkanen (previously COO of Varjo) has been appointed as the new CEO with co-founder and previous CEO, Niko Eiden, staying on as CXO and board member.
This brings the total investment in Varjo to over $100 million as the company continues to expand its global presence and improve its hardware lineup. Companies including Volvo Cars, Boeing, Audi and Siemens already use its range of headsets, from training to design.
“We are seeing tremendous demand for virtual and mixed reality use cases, particularly as much of the world continues to work remotely,” said Toikkanen in a statement. “When you combine the photorealistic resolution and accurate, integrated eye tracking found in our devices with the broad software compatibility we offer, the possibilities for creating, training and running research in immersive environments are endless. With support from our growing group of investors, we look forward to scaling our operations and delivering the cutting-edge technology our customers need to transform the way they work.”
Varjo’s headsets are known for their unique display design – called the Bionic Display. Its made up of two screens, a small 3000ppi display for fine, close up detail and a larger, lower-resolution ‘Context Screen’ to provide a wider field of view (FoV). The Varjo XR-1 Developer Edition – which is based on the original VR-1 – arrived earlier this year and retails for $9,995.
The Varjo VR-2 and VR-2 Pro both launched last year, updating the original VR headsets will better screens and features such as improved peripheral vision and colour consistency. Like all the company’s products, these are purely focused on the enterprise market, the Varjo VR-2 starts from $4,995 while the VR-2 Pro starts from $5,995. For further updates from Varjo, keep reading VRFocus.
