VR concert platform AmazeVR lands $32M in Series B funding to usher in a new era of immersive concerts

Immersive entertainment has grown in popularity in recent years, thanks in part to virtual (VR) and augmented reality (AR) glasses. In 2019, the immersive entertainment industry was valued at $61.8 billion. Today, the market is estimated to be around $65 billion. The arrival of the metaverse has also led to a boom in virtual live streams and immersive concerts.

One of the leading companies in the immersive concert space is AmazeVR, a Los Angeles-based VR concert platform company that brings fans closer to artists. Fans can also come face-to-face with their favorite artists with crystal clarity and unprecedented proximity through live-action 3D footage. We covered AmazeVR early this year after the startup closed a $15 million round of funding to usher in a new era of immersive concerts and support its industry-leading vision for VR concerts.

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”), AmazeVR announced today it 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 $32 million.

Founded in 2015 by Ernest Lee, Jeremy Nam, Steve Lee, and Steven Koo, 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, distributed through movie theaters, and eventually at-home VR. Its first VR concert tour with Megan Thee Stallion is coming to AMC Theatres across the US in Spring 2022.

Since its inception seven years ago, AmazeVR has 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.”

CJ ENM CEO Ho-Sung Kang added, “We are excited to partner with AmazeVR, a company that is leading premium VR content production technology, to lead a new paradigm in the entertainment industry.”