After Kickstarter success, Chinese startup gets funding for VR treadmill

Just over six months after wrapping up a successful Kickstarter campaign for its omni-directional VR treadmill, the team at China’s KatVR have secured angel funding.

The investment amounts to about US$1 million, explains KatVR brand manager Gallen Gao to Tech in Asia, from Unity Ventures, Xinyuan Investment, Jinfu Investment. It will be used for mass production, marketing, and R&D.

The whole thing looks like a giant baby bouncer.

The Kat Walk last summer sailed past its US$100,000 goal to raise US$149,278 from 231 backers. It’s designed to work with most VR systems – not including the VR hardware. (Update on March 10: removed a reference to the HTC Vive. Support for the Vive has not yet been decided upon.)

I got a demo of Kat Walk in action in Shanghai last year. The whole thing looks like a giant baby bouncer. The harness goes around a gamer’s waist and crotch so that you stay central on the base. The top limb goes up and down on the device’s spine so that you can jump or even crouch down. And, of course, you can turn in any direction.

Kaye Pang, KatVR’s CEO, explains that it’s designed to work well with first-person shooter (FPS) games, and is meant to allow for natural walking and flexible movements. It also works with RPGs and can be used in VR environments for training purposes, such as for the military or police. She says controlling VR by actually moving makes it more immersive and reduces simulator sickness.

I saw it demoed both with Crossfire and Grand Theft Auto 5. While the kit supports any game that uses a keyboard or controller, it will be up to game developers to add in support for the hardware, so specific game support is up in the air at the moment.

The team was hoping to start shipping the Kat Walk in April, but there have been some small stumbles. “We are a little behind schedule. The delivery may be delayed for a few weeks, but we are very close to our previous estimations,” says Gallen.

VR is already a pricey toy that requires a hefty gaming PC to power it. Throw in the Kat Walk rig and it’s an extraordinarily expensive bit of kit. But for those already hooked to the idea of VR, it looks to offer an extremely immersive experience.

See: I tried the HTC Vive, but I’m still not convinced I need VR in my life