Although the term metaverse has been around for nearly 30 years—coined in the novel “Snow Crash”—Facebook’s name change to Meta in late October seems to have reignited investors’ interest in the virtual and augmented worlds that play a role in the concept.

Last year’s fourth quarter was unlike any other as far as venture interest in the VR/AR space. Nearly $1.9 billion of venture capital rolled into startups in the virtual and augmented reality software and hardware space—more than any quarter ever, according to Crunchbase data. READ MORE