Bigscreen

About Bigscreen

Bigscreen, founded in 2014 by CEO Darshan Shankar, operates at the intersection of social virtual reality and hardware. Shankar, a University of California, Berkeley graduate in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and a Y Combinator alum, previously founded Flotype, a real-time communications technology company. This background in software engineering and entrepreneurship provided the foundation for Bigscreen's initial focus on creating shared virtual spaces. The company is backed by venture capital from firms including Andreessen Horowitz and True Ventures, having raised $14 million over two rounds, with the latest being a Series A in October 2017.

The company's core business revolves around a multi-faceted VR platform that serves a global user base of over six million people. The initial offering is a social VR application that allows users to stream their computer desktop into a virtual environment, enabling them to play PC games, watch movies, and collaborate with others in shared virtual rooms. This software is available on major VR platforms like Meta Quest and SteamVR, supporting a wide range of headsets. Revenue for the software side is generated through the rental of 3D movies, facilitated by partnerships with major studios like Paramount Pictures.

In a significant strategic evolution, Bigscreen expanded from software into hardware with the launch of the Bigscreen Beyond headset in 2023. This move was driven by the desire to create hardware optimized for the Bigscreen software experience, addressing comfort and immersion issues prevalent in the market. The Bigscreen Beyond is a high-end, wired PC VR headset known for being exceptionally lightweight at just 127 grams. Its key feature is its custom-built nature; each unit is manufactured to fit the specific user's face shape and interpupillary distance (IPD), based on a 3D scan provided during purchase. This bespoke design aims to eliminate light leakage and maximize comfort for long sessions. The headset features high-resolution micro-OLED displays (2560x2560 pixels per eye), pancake optics for improved clarity, and relies on SteamVR for tracking, requiring external base stations and controllers which are sold separately.