San Antonio VR Headset Maker Merge Lands New Funding, Expands Sales
San Antonio — [Updated 1 p.m. See below.] Virtual reality headset maker Merge Labs has raised $ 10.1 million in new equity funding, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company, which sells virtual reality headsets marketed as Merge VR Goggles for $ 79, had previously raised about $ 3 million in seed funding. Merge listed its co-founders and top executives, Franklin Lyons and Andrew Trickett, as two of its board members in the SEC filing, along with former Rackspace (NYSE: RAX) President Lew Moorman as a third member.
The funding comes from investors across gaming, software, hardware, and retail verticals, according to marketing coordinator Taryn Saavedra, who declined to provide further detail on the funding. Merge didn’t say how it plans to spend the money in the filing. [Comment from company added.]
Merge has been expanding its sales presence globally, having recently signed a deal to put its VR goggles in 250 GameStop (NYSE: GME) stores. Target has also started carrying its product, Merge announced yesterday.
In addition to developing more retail relationships, Merge has also started working on other devices. Trickett told Xconomy in March about the company’s development of a VR controller, which will have motion-sensing capability like a Nintendo Wii.
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