VC firm creates $10 million fund to spur virtual reality startups

With the virtual and augmented reality markets projected to take off in the next five years, a San Francisco venture capital firm has created a $10 million fund to invest in startups focusing on those emerging technologies.

Presence Capital announced its long-term plans Thursday, but it has already made stealth investments in three companies, including Baobab Studios, a virtual reality animation startup that landed a $6 million round led by Comcast Ventures last week.

Presence Capital co-founder and managing partner Amitt Mahajan believes his fund’s narrow focus on virtual and augmented reality won’t end up with the same results as the Glass Collective, which invested in startups building software and hardware for the now-dormant Google Glass.

The most active has been Rothenberg Ventures and its River virtual reality accelerator, which have made 23 investments, followed by Intel Capital with 10 and Google Ventures with six, PitchBook said.

Google Glass, wearable glasses that project computer-generated information in front of a wearer’s eyes, showed some of that potential, even though the device itself failed to take off, Mahajan said.

Presence Capital has also invested in Harmonix, a virtual-augmented reality company formed by the makers of the video game “Rock Band,” and Waygo, a startup with augmented reality technology that translates Asian languages into English on the fly.