# Brendan Iribe

> Brendan Iribe is a seed investor at BIG Ventures backing Software and Information Technology. See 13 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [BIG Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/big-ventures)
- Location: Palo Alto, United States
- Total investments: 13
- Last investment: Jul 2025
- Lead investor: 38%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/brendaniribe
- X (Twitter): http://twitter.com/brendaniribe
- Website: http://www.inception.com
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/brendaniribe

Brendan Iribe is a seed investor at BIG Ventures in Palo Alto focused on Software and Information Technology. Brendan Iribe is one of the video game industry’s most successful entrepreneurs.  He was the CEO and co-founder of Oculus VR, the Irvine-based developer of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.  Oculus VR recently made worldwide headlines when on March 26, 2014, Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) announced that it was acquiring Oculus VR in a deal worthapproximately $3 billion. The two companies are joining forces to create the best virtual reality platform in the world.In 2012, Brendan and his team launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the creation of Oculus Rift development kit. With the support of 9,522 backers, they exceeded their original goal of $250,000 and ended up raising over $2.4 million. The campaign remains one of the top 20 most-funded campaigns in Kickstarter history.Before Oculus, Brendan served as Chief Product Officer of Gaikai, another innovative Orange County success story. In July of 2012, Sony Computer Entertainment (NYSE: SNE) acquired Gaikai for $380m.Prior to Gaikai, Brendan spent a decade as co-founder and CEO of Scaleform, the #1 user interface technology provider in the video game market, which Autodesk (NASDAQ: ADSK) acquired in 2011. Earlier in his career, Brendan worked as a game programmer and helped the Firaxis team develop the user interface for Civilization IV, a game that went on to sell millions of units and win multiple awards.

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Seed | $3M–$30M |
| Pre-Seed | $300k–$1.3M |
| Series A | $4M–$48M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Software | 9 | 69% |
| Information Technology | 5 | 38% |
| Artificial Intelligence | 5 | 38% |
| 3D Technology | 3 | 23% |
| Real Time | 2 | 15% |

35 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 5 | 38% |
| Series A | 4 | 31% |
| Pre-Seed | 3 | 23% |
| Funding Round | 1 | 8% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 8 | 62% |
| Germany | 1 | 8% |
| Hong Kong | 1 | 8% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Gixel | Creating breakthrough AR display technology for AI glasses and spatial computing. | $5.9M | Seed | Jul 23, 2025 |  |
| OpenInfer | OpenInfer develops an AI inference engine for edge applications | $8M | Seed | Feb 20, 2025 |  |
| 2weeks | 2weeks is a team of experienced professionals from the games industry, known for their expertise in prototyping and development. | $1.3M | Pre-Seed | Aug 01, 2024 |  |
| Black Forest Labs | Black Forest Labs creates advanced generative deep learning models for images and videos. They focus on making these technologies widely accessible and transparent, ensuring that their innovations are easy to use and understand. This approach aims to democratize access to cutting-edge technology and foster greater trust and utility. | $30.2M | Seed | Aug 01, 2024 |  |
| Sesame | Sesame AI develops advanced artificial intelligence systems that mimic human-like interactions and sensory perceptions. It focuses on technologies such as natural language processing, machine learning, and computer vision to create applications like personal assistants, healthcare solutions, and customer service chatbots. The company engages inresearch and development, collaborating with institutions to advance AI responsibly while addressing ethical considerations. Its goal is to improve accessibility and productivity through intelligent systems that adapt to human needs. | $47.5M | Series A | Nov 01, 2023 |  |
| Brilliant Labs | Brilliant Labs is a web for technology-based data transformation that offers services for digital and physical use. Brilliant Labs is building an ecosystem to catalyze the development of the emerging web. Their customers' inquiries are addressed through phone, email, and online applications.It was founded in 2019 and is located in Hong Kong,Hong Kong Island. | $3M | Seed | Jun 27, 2023 |  |
| ElevenLabs | Research Lab. Exploring new frontiers of voice generation. We are researching and deploying novel methods in voice AI to make content enjoyable in any language and voice to benefit new audiences and viewers. Our mission is to make content universally accessible in any language & voice. | $19M | Series A | Jun 20, 2023 |  |
| Scenario | Scenario is a developer of application modeling 3D objects for the metaverse. This technology makes and shares 3D experiences that help in scanning and capturing anything in the world with a smartphone. | $6M | Seed | Jan 19, 2023 |  |
| VNTANA | VNTANA's 3D Collaboration Platform automatically creates 3D web and AR experiences from your manufacturing design files proven to more than double online sales while reducing returns. Our smart algorithms get rid of the need for manual 3D artist work by automatically optimizing and converting 3D assets to ready to use files for Snap, Facebook,Instagra, Google, Shopify, SAP, Unity, and other 3D platforms for advertising and ecommerce. | $4M | Series A | Nov 04, 2021 |  |
| Vette | Utilizing excess capacity, and instant human engagement, Vette allows companies to focus on growing their business while Vette humanizes the touch points along the way. | $300K | Pre-Seed | Feb 25, 2021 |  |

10 of 13 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Andreessen Horowitz](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/andreessen-horowitz) — VC Fund, 7 deals together
- [Anorak Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/anorak-ventures-2) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [General Catalyst](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/general-catalyst-partners) — VC Fund, 3 deals together
- [SV Angel](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sv-angel) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [A16Z GAMES Speedrun](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/a16z-games) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [BIG Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/big-ventures) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## About BIG Ventures

VC Fund · San Francisco, United States

The Brendan Iribe Group (BIG) focuses on early-stage venture investing in disruptive technology.

1 contacts available at BIG Ventures.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Brendan Iribe | Managing Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/brendan-iribe |

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## FAQ

### What does Brendan Iribe invest in?

Brendan Iribe invests primarily in Software, Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 13 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### What is Brendan Iribe's check size?

Brendan Iribe typically joins rounds of $3M–$30M at Seed, $300k–$1.3M at Pre-Seed and $4M–$48M at Series A. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Brendan Iribe participates in.

### When did Brendan Iribe last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Brendan Iribe closed in Jul 2025. Shizune tracks 13 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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