Comcast Ventures Leads Financing Round for New VR Company

SANTA MONICA: SPACES, a new virtual reality company founded by two former DreamWorks Animation executives, has raised $3 million in initial funding, with Comcast Ventures leading the financing round.

SPACES, founded by Shiraz Akmal, CEO, and Brad Herman, CTO, is working with Microsoft, NBCUniversal, Big Blue Bubble and The Hettema Group, among others, to develop virtual reality and mixed reality for a range of platforms, including Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Microsoft HoloLens, Samsung Gear VR, PlayStation VR and Google Cardboard. The team at the company has worked on projects such as the Dragons VR flying experience for Oculus Rift, the initial version of DreamWorks Color, an augmented reality app, and the DreamWorks VR app.

In addition to Comcast Ventures, investors include Boost VC, Canyon Creek Capital, Colopl VR Fund, GREE Inc., Kai Huang, the Venture Reality Fund, the Sinovation Fund, Youku Global Media Fund and CRCM VC. Among the members of SPACES’s global advisory board are Dan Offner, attorney, angel investor and former general counsel for Oculus; Keith Boesky, former president of Eidos Interactive and the principal of Boesky & Company; and Indian film actor and entrepreneur Rana Daggubati.

“SPACES has a compelling and clear vision to be the catalyst for companies looking to create VR and MxR experiences,” said Michael Yang, the managing director of Comcast Ventures. “SPACES is combining remarkable capabilities, tools and creativity to push the boundaries of the VR frontier.”