Austin—Google has bought Owlchemy Labs, an Austin, TX, virtual reality startup best known for its “Job Simulator” game.
Relja Marcovik, engineering director of virtual reality and augmented reality at Google, announced the news in a blog post Wednesday, saying Owlchemy “set a high bar for what engagement can be like in virtual worlds, and do it all with a great sense of humor!” Terms were not disclosed.
In a separate blog post, Alex Schwartz, the Austin company’s CEO, said the Owlchemy operation will “continue building high quality [virtual reality] content for platforms like the HTC Vive, Oculus Touch, and PlayStation VR. This means continuing to focus on hand interactions and high quality user experiences, like with Job Simulator.”
Owlchemy was founded in 2010 and, in 2016, raised $5 million in Series A funding from investors such as Qualcomm Ventures, The Venture Reality Fund, HTC, Colopl Next, and Capital Factory.
