FOV Ventures — venture capital firm — raises $18 million to fund startups

Founding partners David Haines and Petri Rayahalme have announced the creation of FOV Ventures, a Finnish early-stage venture capital firm through which the duo plans to focus on European metaverse startups.

The company said it has raised $18.1 million so far and plans to limit its first fund to $27.5 million. Through this fund, the company plans to invest $274K–550K in 25 companies at the preliminary and seed stages.

According to the company's representatives, it seeks to finance startups working in such areas as "Avatars and Identification", "Retail and Digital Commerce", "Immersive Social Environment", "The Future of Work" and "Tools and Infrastructure".

"The metaverse represents a significant expansion of today's Internet, created with the help of new tools such as 3D real—time game engines, and embracing the increasingly blurred boundary between the virtual and physical world," the company said in a statement.

According to the firm, both founding partners have experience in venture financing. Dave Haynes previously worked at Vive X, HTC's VR investment fund, and at Seedcamp, a European venture capital firm. Haines allegedly led investments in LIV, Maze Theory and Bodyswaps while working at Vive X. Petri Rajahalme was a managing director at the Nordic XR Startups fund, where he allegedly led investments in eight XR companies, and also worked in XR investments before creating FOV Ventures.