Meet Tracker – the new AR, VR, and eSports Fund started by Greycroft’s Jon Goldman

eSports

It’s no secret that AR, VR, and eSports are probably three of the hottest (and most nascent) areas in the gaming and digital entertainment world, period. There are a lot of rumors about eSports being in the Olympics sooner than you might think and given that I just took off my Oculus Rift headset to write this blog post…safe to say VR is making its way into the home, also faster than people might have expected.

So it’s not all that surprising that a VC from the billion dollar Greycroft fund would branch out to explore this area…and maybe find some good deals for the larger fund along the way. The fund, called “Tracker” raised $15.6M and plans to make a lot more investments over the next couple of years.

One thing to note is that while they might be writing checks now, companies that get funding from the new fund shouldn’t expect follow-on investments as Jon mentioned in an interview with Venture Beat:

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“We have a lot of dry powder,” Goldman said. “That’s because we are not likely to be making follow-on investments, as that is the kind of thing that Greycroft would do if they wanted.” (Source – VentureBeat)

The neat thing here is that you essentially have a VC from a billion dollar VC firm, investing like a micro-VC would, and teeing up some investments for the larger fund which I’m guessing they wouldn’t have discovered without someone like Jon focusing on the earlier stage deals.

I think this is a great move for Jon and definitely a fund to watch, something tells me some of the hottest new AR, VR, and eSports companies will find Tracker on their cap table. In case you’re wondering how Jon got so into investing in the future of video games and eSports, you probably won’t be surprised to hear that he was the CEO of Foundation 9 Entertainment, a video game company started in 2005 that got a whopping $150M in funding a year into its life.

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So yeah, Jon knows a little bit about gaming, entertainment, and where this is all going, and if he’s betting on AR, VR, and eSports, it’s safe to say there’s something there, something big. Congrats on the new fund Jon – looking forward to following along with your investments…and of course – playing with what they make in VR 🙂

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton