Sony Pictures Entertainment has invested $100 million in Cosm, the entertainment and tech company focused on creating shared-reality experiences through immersive dome-like venues throughout the U.S.
Sony led Cosm’s Series C financing round and will take a minority ownership stake in the company, while SPE CEO and chairman Ravi Ahuja will join Cosm’s board of directors.
Cosm, founded in 2020 by Steve Winn, has opened several dome structures throughout the U.S. Cosm’s venues — three in Los Angeles, Dallas and Inglewood, with upcoming venues in Detroit and Cleveland— allow fans to experience sporting events and other entertainment experiences through various 87-foot, 12K LED dome displays, selling different seating tiers to hundreds of fans that mimic fans’ attendance at sporting events. It was the technology and collective experience that lured Sony to invest in the company, according to a source familiar with the matter, with hopes to have the funds help Cosm expand its market footprint domestically and worldwide.
Cosm has struck partnerships with the NFL, NBA, WWE, NBC Sports, ESPN, CBS Sports and other sports broadcasters, and it has also shown films such as “The Matrix,“ “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” and “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” Sony plans to experiment with new ways to screen its own slate of franchises using the technology, according to the source, potentially bringing its “Spider-Man,” “Rocky” and anime movies along with films under their “Classics” banner to the shared-reality format. The company hopes to announce which projects make it to Cosm screens before the end of the year, according to the source.
