The Atlas V Group, a European leader in VR and immersive content production, has completed a €5 million ($6 million) fundraising round from key investors, including Taiwan-based HTC (formerly known as High Tech Computer Corporation), to fast-track its expansion into gaming and location-based immersive experiences.
Founded in 2017, Atlas V has partnered with high profile producers and talent on critically acclaimed VR content such as “Elvover,” produced and voiced by Cate Blanchett (“Evolver“); “Spheres: Songs of Spacetime,” produced by Darren Aronofsky, and voiced by Chastain, Millie Bobby Brown and Patti Smith; “Gloomy Eyes” voiced by Collin Farrell; and “Battlescar,” voiced by Rosario Dawson. These have premiered at top festivals, including Sundance, Tribeca, Venice and Cannes’ market, among others. Its best-known productions also include “Wallace & Gromit: The Grand Getaway,” developed with Aardman and Meta; “Mobile Suit Gundam: Silver Phantom,” co-produced with Bandai Namco for Meta Quest; “Astra,” one of the first mixed-reality apps on Quest 3; and more recently, “Playing with Fire,” a massive location-based immersive experience that launched at the Philharmonie de Paris in 2025, blending art, music, and spatial storytelling.
“For years, Atlas V has crafted emotional stories that audiences can truly step into,” said Antoine Cayrol, CEO and co-founder of Atlas Group. “Today, we’re amplifying that mission — merging narrative artistry, multi-user experiences, and gaming to shape the next generation of immersive entertainment.
Cayrol told Variety that Atlas V will continue producing two or three narrative VR experiences per year. As it enters a new chapter, the company has staffed up with 55 people, many of whom come from topnotch gaming companies such as Ubisoft. Atlas V is currently in production with nine games and plans to deliver approximately 50 games per year.
Atlas V will also be rolling off some of its IP’s, like “Gloomy Eyes,” into location-based experiences; and is working with a number of European groups on developing spinoffs of flagship franchises.
The immersive entertainment market is evolving rapidly, with social and casual free-to-play titles now dominating user engagement across VR platforms. With the $6 million it has just raised, Atlas V looks to build on that momentum to put together an industrialized pipeline of casual immersive games, as well as continue developing strategic partnerships with major entertainment IPs to bring iconic franchises into immersive gaming; match its teams with talent from the gaming and XR sectors; build collaborations with XR companies; and explore synergies with HTC’s portfolio to accelerate growth in VR gaming.
“This isn’t a pivot — it’s a diversification,” says co-founder and producer Arnaud Colinart. “We remain fully committed to the narrative and artistic projects that define our identity – including large-scale VR installations like ‘Playing with Fire’ — while expanding into scalable, social experiences that will drive the next wave of immersive adoption.”
Atlas V’s studio manager Mathieu Barbier says the company has observed “a major shift in the gaming landscape, with social and casual experiences increasingly driving engagement across XR platforms, alongside the emergence of new audiences and genres thriving on digital storefronts.”
“For us as a studio, this represents an exciting challenge: evolving our teams and creative approach to align with these new trends,” Barbier continued.
Atlas V will now become a vertically integrated studio, involved in creating, producing, and publishing its own immersive works. The banner will work hand-in-hand with its subsidiary Astrea Immersive which handles distribution.
“Atlas V’s strength has always been creative independence,” Cayrol said. “By bringing production and publishing under one roof, we’re simplifying our operations and ensuring that every project we launch fully reflects our vision.”
With more than five years of collaboration with all major players of the XR industry since 2017, including a framework agreement to produce immersive content, and a preferred-partner status on Horizon Worlds, Atlas V has earned privileged access to major XR platforms, early-stage technologies, and beta programs.
“Atlas V has a proven record of creative and technical excellence in XR,” said William Wu, HTC’s strategic investment manager. “Their move into scalable F2P gaming is a bold, strategic step that leverages their storytelling DNA and positions them as a key player in the future of immersive entertainment,” added Wu.