The DeanBeat: Seattle event marks the accelerated growth of virtual reality and augmented reality

SEATTLE — It’s not easy to find benchmarks for the excitement around virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) — two technologies that are expected to become transformative computing platforms. But my experience at the SEA-VR event is a good proxy. For the second year in a row, I attended the event, held this year at a bigger venue in Bellevue, Wash. It gave me more of a feeling for the velocity of the startup cycle and ecosystem for VR and AR. Going to the event for a second time gave me a sense of its business acceleration and how different opinions are emerging about just how soon VR and AR are going to be ready.

Stoking the fire are Facebook’s $2 billion purchase of Oculus Rift and Google’s $524 million investment in AR startup Magic Leap. VCs are speaking more openly about funding companies, such as Envelop VR, an enterprise VR startup in Seattle that raised $4 million from Madrona Venture Group.