July 31--HTC Corp. announced it is putting about $10 million in WeVR, a Venice start-up that's building software to create, transmit and play virtual-reality content on a range of devices. The deal gives HTC a 15% stake in the company.
With HTC's smartphone business plummeting, Chief Executive Cher Wang has pegged virtual reality as a transformative technology and potentially the company's next big market. The Taiwanese company -- like Sony and Facebook's Oculus VR -- will soon be selling virtual-reality headsets. When worn, they close a person's view off from the world and fill their vision with video.
WeVR software is aimed at the entire VR market, not just HTC products. Anthony Batt, a WeVR co-founder, said in an interview in April the goal is to create a "flat playing field" for content developers.
"Everyone is seeing there's going to be multiple headsets in the space and each will have their own nuances, and if you're someone who wants to create content, you don't want to worry about those nuances," he said. "You want something that plays nicely across those devices."
WeVR is also commissioning content and developing its own to learn more about what technology must be built.
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