Oculus Rift secures $16 million in funding

Virtual reality company Oculus VR has announced it has secured $16 million in venture capital funding, co-led by Spark Capital and Matrix Partners, with additional money from firms Founders Fund and Formation 8.

The funds will be used to "accelerate" development of the Oculus Rift hardware, software, and services, the company said.

"Oculus began with a single mission: to put players inside the game," said inventor Palmer Luckey. "This investment allows us to deliver immersive and affordable virtual reality to players everywhere."

As part of the funding allocation, Spark founder Santo Politi and Matrix general partner Antonio Rodriguez will join the Oculus VR board of directors.

In a statement, Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe explained that many challenges still lie ahead for the company, but the extra funding should help it achieve its goals.

"There are still many challenging problems to solve, but with the support of these great investment partners, and our passionate community, we will continue to hire the brightest minds and stay laser focused on delivering the very best virtual reality platform possible," Iribe said.

The Oculus Rift headset was successful on its first day on Kickstarter, raising a total of $2.4 million at the close of its crowd-funding campaign. Development kits are available now for game makers, though no release date has been set yet for a public release.

Oculus VR cofunder Andrew Scott Reisse was killed last month in Santa Ana, California. Reisse was crossing a sidewalk when a Dodge Charger carrying suspects fleeing police struck and killed him. He was 33.