Tyffon, a graduate of the Disney Accelerator program, has raised $7.8 million to expand its free-roam virtual reality experience locations from Japan to the U.S.
The company will open a Tyffonium venue later this year in Los Angeles. The company already has two locations in the Odaiba and Shibuya areas of Tokyo, and it will open a third Tokyo location in 2019.
The Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS), with several others participating, led the round to accelerate the global expansion of the hyper-realistic Tyffonium venues. Tyffon’s new investment represents the first tranche of Tyffon’s series A financing and brings Tyffon’s total investment to more than $12 million to date.
TBS and other new investors join existing investors that include Sega Sammy Holdings, The Walt Disney Company, Mizuho Capital, Tokyu Recreation, and Canal Ventures, among others.
Tyffon operates free roam VR, where you are not tethered by wires to a computer. The mixed reality experience combines an immersive physical location with an immersive VR experience where the player wears a VR headset.
“We enthusiastically welcome our new strategic investments and look forward to expanding our innovative and impactful Tyffonium immersive experiences beyond Japan, to audiences in the U.S., and later in other territories around the world,” said Tyffon CEO Ken Fukazawa, in a statement. “We are gratified at the tremendous pedigree of our investors who have placed their faith and trust in us. They represent some of the leading media, entertainment and technology innovators and creative forces in the world. We at Tyffon are committed to honoring that creative legacy and creating and sharing the highest quality and most innovative immersive experiences in the world.”
Tyffon will use its new funds to expand its global team and accelerate overall expansion of its Tyffoniums and related experiences both in the U.S. and Japan, as well as additional territories around the world. Tyffon already showcases its immersive experiences such as the horror experience Corridor and the fantasy ride Fluctus.
Tyffon plans to work even more closely with U.S. media and entertainment companies to bring their content, characters, franchises, and intellectual property to life with the highest quality and impact, and engage more deeply with audiences around the world.
To date, Tyffon has developed three individual immersive experiences for its Tyffoniums, all of which combine VR technology and multi-sensory effects in a physical environment that allows guests to roam freely and experience hyper-real immersive environments together, socially.
The first to come out was Corridor, the second was Fluctus. And the third is Tarot VR: Voyage of Reverie, which has 22 individual mixed reality experiences based on 22 tarot cards. Tyffon is currently developing more titles on its own for global audiences.
The company also uniquely develops and distributes mobile immersive experiences that will complement and integrate with Tyffonium in-venue experiences to maximize impact and overall engagement. Tyffon’s “Zombie Booth 2” app and Disney app have been downloaded over 50 million times worldwide. Tyffon has 35 employees.