The Future Is Still Human

Venture capitalist Martin Berry believes the world is on the cusp of the next great entrepreneurial wave and he’s placing his bet on one thing.

- Farhan Shah

Six years ago, virtual reality (VR) was heralded as the next big thing. Facebook paid US$3 billion (S$4.2 billion) for headset maker Oculus VR in 2014. Large consumer technology companies such as Google, HTC and Samsung were falling over themselves in a race to push VR headsets into the market. Time magazine even put Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus VR and designer of the Oculus Rift, on its August 17, 2015, cover.

Today, VR remains a tech novelty with mass adoption looking more and more like a pipe dream. In 2016, venture capitalists threw close to US$900 million into VR start-ups. Two years later, that amount more than halved to US$280 million.

It is this cautionary tale that Martin Berry preaches when we talk about the next big thing that will upend the world.

“Compared to others [during that time] that have done well, VR hasn’t gone anywhere. Now, I prefer investments that are less theoretical and have more real-world applications. Where have we seen traction? How are the customers behaving? How is it working?” he elaborates.