Funding for immersive creators

Businesses everywhere are feeling the financial effects of COVID-19. As a recent article from Forbes points out, immersive and emerging media artists — especially those working on experimental material — can be especially vulnerable.

With this in mind, we thought we’d take the chance to round up just a few immersive funding opportunities that aim to make life for XR creators/studios that little bit easier.

Here’s what we found:

(*The fun legal bit*. As always, we’re not financial advisors and none of this is professional financial advice. This is just a collection of current funding opportunities that we hope will be useful for reference.) 😊

Kaleidoscope: Creative Challenge Grant

Formed in response to the pandemic’s economic toll on artists, The Creative Challenge Grant awards a monthly cash prize to the best XR project that can be completed for $5,000 within six months. All formats, genres, and categories of immersive projects will be considered including XR films, games, apps, art, entertainment, and more.

Limited at $5000, the Creative Challenge Grant isn’t huge. Nevertheless, it’s a generous lifeline for indie studios looking for a bit of extra support , especially during these difficult times. Kaleidoscope welcomes applications from individuals as well as small teams; and you can submit anything from an immersive game to a film, app, art project, or something even more experimental.

As the title suggests, the spirit of the grant is all about challenge — so don’t be afraid to send in projects with an ambitious approach & DIY spirit. Some of the projects submitted so far include everything from Afroroutes, a VR music experience re-connecting the Afro-diasporas communities, to Frustrain, a surreal VR-thriller about a bizarre railroad incident.

One thing to bear in mind before you apply. The selection process involves grant supporters ‘upvoting’ their favourite projects across the entire month, which means that projects submitted earlier have an advantage. (Maybe next month?)

The Future Fund

The Government has announced a new scheme to issue convertible loans to innovative companies which are facing financing difficulties due to the Coronavirus outbreak: the Future Fund.

Up to £250,000,000 will initially be available in total for the scheme. The Government will keep this amount under review.

Delivered in partnership with the British Business Bank, The Future Fund is a loan scheme currently available to innovative businesses here in the UK. Aiming to relieve some of the financial pressure around the Coronavirus outbreak, it’s aimed at companies who’ve been negatively affected by the pandemic. The application deadline is listed as the end of September 2020.

ScreenSkills Learning & Events

Ok. So this isn’t strictly funding. However, it’d be shame not to mention the fantastic program offered by ScreenSkills over the coming months.

Not all of it is strictly aimed at immersive creators either, but there’s a lot of cross-over material that’s well worth a look, especially given that most of their courses are free.

Courses include everything from top-level leadership training to budgeting advice for industry newcomers:

Budgets Explained

This course dives into the secrets of dissecting a budget in Excel, [looking at] balancing editorial ambitions with budgetary constraints [&] understanding the importance of the budget in the bigger picture

You’ll need to do a bit of searching to find what’s right for you. And don’t forget to book in advance!

#VirtualLibrary is powered by the VR marketing agency, Virtual Umbrella. We provide agency services and consultancy to immersive companies. If you’re in need of a marketing campaign, someone to run your email newsletter, or a team to do some deep dive research on your competitors, let us know 👋

We’re also open to sponsored posts and advertising on #VirtualLibrary so if you’re interested in reaching about 200 immersive folks per month with your messaging, contact us via: bertie@virtualumbrella.marketing