TheWaveVR Closes $4 Million Round Of Financing And Releases A New VR Experience

TheWaveVR has been making a splash in the VR industry by changing the way we experience a live music show. The company has provided a welcoming platform where musicians and fans can come together to share an intimate moment in the VR space. Today, TheWaveVR has announced they’ll be releasing a beta version of their new social platform for shared music experiences in VR with the addition of raising $4 million in capital.

“We’re hyper focused on creating a new and engaging social experience for music content in VR,” said CEO and Co-Founder Adam Arrigo. “We think the potential of this new medium isn’t in replicating reality, but amplifying it, so we want to give fans interactive experiences that can only be achieved in virtual reality.”

Arrigo was formally a part of the Harmonix team, famous for creating Rock Band and Dance Central.

The new beta version of TheWaveVR experience will let VR users create an account, socialize in a world made of music, and attend live “Wave” shows, which will be airing live once a week. They plan to pick up in frequency over the coming months thereafter.

“On the artist side, we’re building out the tools that let musicians and visual artists easily import and distribute their content on our platform,” said Arrigo.

On top of this insightful news, TheWaveVR managed to raise a $4 million seed round led by Upfront Ventures. Other investors in the round include RRE Ventures, KPCB Edge, Greycroft VR Gaming Tracker Fund and The VR Fund.

“At Upfront we are constantly searching for world changing experiences built by passionate and capable entrepreneurs,” said Kobie Fuller, General Partner at Upfront who led the round and was also an early investor in Oculus. “I have had the pleasure of getting to know Adam, Aaron and the rest of the team over the past year and have been impressed by their ability to execute and pioneer what I truly believe will be a new way we experience music and connect with one another.”

TheWaveVR team is confident that this new platform will create a welcoming environment for both musicians and fans alike.

“We’ve user tested TheWaveVR with dozens of music creators and fans,” said CCO and Co-Founder Aaron Lemke. “VR is a new frontier and we’re excited to bring our users along on the journey with us. Their feedback will directly fuel the development of new features.”

TheWaveVR will be available for both Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. You can check out the early access today on Steam.

Developer Notes:

Why Early Access?

“Virtual Reality is a new medium, and honestly, we are still discovering what works and what doesn’t. We believe the best VR experiences are the ones that are impossible in reality, but if that’s true, then what should these new experiences be like? We think the best path to developing amazing VR experiences is constant testing and feedback from users. And lots of experimentation! After all, our goal is to create an entirely new way of experiencing music.

So if you create music, if you build visuals, or if you are an avid fan of music, we need you.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“We plan on launching the full product by the end of 2017.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“Over the course of Early Access, we will develop platform features that will provide new types of tools for artists to create shows with and new ways for fans to experience those shows.

We’ll know it’s ready for release when we have enough content on the platform and feel 100% confident with the quality of the experience.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Right now we have some basic social features, a little bit of content, and we will be throwing at least one show per week. We’ll be expanding the content on the platform as well as iterating on the social experience of throwing your own shows.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“TheWaveVR is a free experience for now. We’re all musicians here at TheWaveVR, so it’s important to us to find ways of supporting artists and musicians. We’ll be experimenting with different ways of doing this, so we’d love your input!”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“We highly encourage feedback from everyone! Whether it’s a feature request, bug report, or general comment, we absolutely need the community’s involvement in order to build this platform.”