Presence Capital is launching with a $10 million fund focused solely on virtual reality and augmented reality startups.
Leading the charge at this early-stage venture capital firm Presence Capital are founding managing partners Paul Bragiel, Amitt Mahajan and Phil Chen. All three are no stranger to the world of leading technology platforms like virtual reality.
Serial entrepreneur Amitt Mahajan, co-creator of Farmville, knows a thing or two about capitalizing on gaming opportunities early for new platforms. For Mahajan, virtual reality is the next major platform shift that Presence Capital will be there to “support and empower exceptional” entrepreneurs that share their same vision and enthusiasm.
Paul Bragiel has three startups under his belt was an early advisor to companies such as Uber and Unity. Collectively he’s invested in seed rounds to more than 150 companies, which includes holdings in billion dollar companies like Unity and Zappos.
Phil Chen is a virtual reality rockstar in our eyes. Chen founded the HTC Vive project at HTC and brokered the Valve and HTC partnership. He believes that the VR and AR markets are becoming primed for mainstream and is looking forward to “help the global community fully explore what is possible.”
Paul Bragiel, Amitt Mahajan and Phil Chen
The San Fancisco-based fund has already completed a few deals with initial investments in VR and AR companies including Harmonix, who as we know now just announced their Rock Band VR game title with Oculus, as well as Baobab (story and character-driven cinematic experiences in VR), and Waygo (Automatic translation of Asian languages to English).
Presence Capital joins other virtual reality focused investment funds or programs like Rothenberg Ventures’ River fund to help fuel innovation and creativity within the virtual reality space.
