In an understated message on its website, the virtual reality productivity application, Envelop VR, today announced that it is permanently closed.
“Envelop VR has closed” is now the only thing interested parties will find on the website, along with an email address to reach out with questions. No further information about the closure was given and no official statements have yet been made. At the time of this writing, UploadVR has reached out to Envelop VR for comment, but the company has remained silent.
Envelop VR is an application designed to bring a user’s desktop into the virtual space. The idea being that the immersive power of VR would allow for more efficient and powerful workspaces as opposed to a 2D screen. Envelop VR was a well received app and was even nominated for our year end awards for 2016.
Prior to today, Envelop VR had operated in relative success. In 2016 it hosted the Immerse conference in Bellevue, Washington and it managed to raise a respectable $4 million in investment in October, 2015. The round was led by Madrnoa Venture Group and marked that fund’s first ever virtual reality investment. The company was led by Bob Berry who also runs a gaming company known as Uber Entertainment near Seattle.
One of the possible explanations is that the proclivity of other VR productivity apps, and the prospect of heavy-hitters entering the space, is what prompted this closure. Even in the very early days of consumer VR, there already exists a handful of desktop-immersing applications (Big Screen, Virtual Desktop, etc.), many of which seemed more popular with users than Envelop VR.
Looming on the horizon for VR/AR productivity is Microsoft. The gargantuan corporation has already begun cultivating it’s “Windows Holographic” platform, which will eventually provide many of the same services that Envelop VR was offering.
Today’s news is the second significant VR shuttering in the past three months. In November of last year, 360 video company VRideo closed down citing growing overhead and limited funding.
