According to Digi-Capital, venture capitalists and corporate investors provided $2.3 billion in virtual reality and augmented reality in 2016. This was over 3 times the $700+ million that was invested in 2015. Some of the notable firms include Magic Leap, who received $793.2 million and is said to be working on an augmented reality head-mounted display. The video game development software company Unity received $181 million.
Digi-Capital’s article provides a pie-graph that shoes the exact breakdown of how the investments landed during virtual reality’s first year as a true consumer product. Regardless of what happens in the short term, the article states that the long term outlook for VR/AR investors appears to be quite bright.