In case you didn’t see the announcement, we have great news to share: we’ve raised $16 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Spark Capital and Matrix Partners, along with Founders Fund and Formation 8. This level of financial support opens incredible new doors for Oculus, and I’d like to provide a bit of context and backstory.

I have been working on virtual reality technology for years. Starting in a garage, prototyping new hardware, and collaborating with other virtual reality enthusiasts was a blast long before anyone thought VR was poised for a comeback. Hackers, makers, and enthusiasts live on the bleeding edge of tech not because it makes financial sense, but because it is a thrill that you cannot get anywhere else.

I got into VR because it seemed like the obvious path to the best possible gaming experience, but never expected it to take off so quickly. In less than a year, incredible game developers all over the world are building games designed explicitly for virtual reality, and people are beginning to understand that the tech is finally viable. Even with “next generation” consoles on the horizon, VR still came away with dozens of awards and accolades at E3.

We were fortunate enough to be able to pick investors who we thought would be a great fit. They really believe in our vision for the future of VR. These are people who have taken companies from startup to mass market many times, entrepreneurs who have a ton of meaningful experience building hardware and software consumer technology.

As I mentioned before, the funding opens up all sorts of doors for Oculus. It helps us hire the best and brightest minds in VR from around the world. It lets us experiment and prototype with more cutting-edge tech. And it allows us to build a badass, consumer VR gaming platform, the likes of which the world has never seen.

Virtual reality will be one of the most significant technologies of the 21st century. It has the potential to drastically alter the way we play, communicate, and learn. I think that VR can (and will) be as widely used as Facebook or Twitter, and the societal implications will be far greater!

I want to thank everyone for their support. None of this would be possible without you, the people who supported Oculus when it was nothing but a rough prototype and a dream of changing gaming forever!

— Palmer