One of the underlying trends of VR/AR investment in 2018 is that money has become harder to come by for startups which may have had no trouble pulling together a round in 2016. Who better to chat with about why this is happening than a partner at one of the leading early stage venture capital firms.
Catherine Ulrich of FirstMark Capital will be joining us onstage at TechCrunch Sessions: AR/VR in LA on October 18th where we’ll get a chance to chat with her about investor perceptions surrounding augmented and virtual reality startups and where she thinks the real opportunities lie in the short and long term.
Before joining FirstMark as a managing partner this past year, Ulrich served as the Chief Product Officer at Shutterstock and previously held a number of executive roles at Weight Watchers. Ulrich recently led the firm’s investment in Parsely Health, an ambitious medtech startup looking to reimagine the healthcare industry with its membership service.
FirstMark Capital is a New York City VC firm that has made a name for itself in the past decade with smart early stage bets. They’ve made notable investments in Airbnb, Frame.io, Shopify, Pinterest, DraftKings and Riot Games, among many others.
While so much of the AR/VR scene has been pushing forward in LA and San Francisco, FirstMark is firmly rooted in NY though they have managed to begin experimenting with investments in the space. The firm led 3D object platform Sketchfab’s $7 million Series A. The tool has become a popular hub for 3D models that can be shared and purchased by creators.
While some more established firms have been reticent to pump money into a field with so many variables, others see the massive opportunity presented by AR/VR as well worth the massive risk. With so many of today’s massive tech giants arguing that AR and VR will be the most critical future platforms, it’s really a question of when the timing will be right and which startups have the longevity to make it there. We’ll zero in on all of these questions and more when Ulrich takes to the stage at our October event.
Early bird tickets are now on sale for $99 – that’s 50% off before prices go up! Student tickets are available for $45. You can get your tickets here.
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