Oculus Rift scores $16 million in funding

A group of venture capitalists have ponied up $16 million to help "accelerate" the development of Oculus Rift as a commercial product.

Spark Capital and Matrix Partners coughed up most of the cash, with contributions from Founders Fund and Formation 8, Gamespot reports.

The money will be used to help bring Oculus Rift to commercial launch, and as part of the deal an officer from both Spark and Matrix will join the VR tech company's board of directors.

"This investment allows us to deliver immersive and affordable virtual reality to players everywhere," Oculus Rift's Palmer Luckey said.

As part of the funding allocation, Spark founder Santo Politi and Matrix general partner Antonio Rodriguez will join the Oculus VR board of directors.

"There are still many challenging problems to solve, but with the support of these great investment partners, and our passionate community, we will continue to hire the brightest minds and stay laser focused on delivering the very best virtual reality platform possible," Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe added.

Oculus Rift funded its initial development through a very popular Kickstarter, but although dev kits have been made available to backers and developers, it's a long way from retailing for consumers.