Cosm, a Playa Vista-based startup that builds immersive entertainment viewing venues, announced in late July that it raised $250 million in fresh funding from notable sports investors, valuing the company at $1 billion.
The roster of investors includes ROCK (the family office of Cleveland Cavaliers owner Daniel Gilbert), Bolt Ventures (in part owned by David Blitzer, who is the first person to have equity in five major sports leagues in North America) and Avenue Sports Fund (the shop led by Marc Lasry, who was a co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks until 2023).
Why is Cosm so popular among the business elites of sports? The company builds venues on what it calls “shared reality” – augmented reality, virtual reality and everything in between – that allow sports fans to watch games in a way that is entirely different from the home screen or on the field.
Cosm Chief Executive Jeb Terry admits he uses “every major hype word in the industry to describe what Cosm is,” but, he says, that’s because the company is difficult to explain. It’s not a theater, cinema or arena in the traditional sense of those words.
“It’s really something that’s a must see to believe,” he said.
But we’ll try: take Cosm’s first venue, which opened in Inglewood in June. The 65,000-square-foot space boasts a giant dome that spans 80 feet and sofa-like seating. Attached to it is a hall that offers food, drinks and tables against a 15 by 150-foot LED screen. If there’s a big college football game day, the dome will play one game and the hall will have smaller screens streaming other matches. The deck above offers a bar space, patio furniture and fresh air. All in all, the venue can seat 1,700 people.
“We’re never going to try to be better than the in-arena or in-stadium experience. Nothing’s going to replace being in the front row of Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas,” Terry said. “But we can offer a really unique complementary experience that could be close to it. It’s like being on the sidelines. It’s like being in the front row.”
Tickets range anywhere from $17 to $600 depending on the event and how much access visitors want.
Terry was long entrenched in the sports world before Cosm. He spent five years in the NFL, playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the San Francisco 49ers. After getting his master’s degree in business administration, he cofounded a sports media startup that sold to Fox Sports. He began working on new ways to cast major sports events like the Super Bowl or the World Cup to virtual reality headsets and creating digital experiences that complemented broadcast showings.
“I’ve had the chance to run out of a tunnel for an NFL playoff game…being able to give the fans that access the opportunity to experience something like never before, that’s really the driving distance around Cosm,” Terry said.
Cosm was pieced together through a slew of acquisitions – computer graphics company Evans and Sutherland was first, followed by LiveLikeVR – that were funded by Mirasol Capital. Cosm still uses its tech stack to produce immersive sports content for VR headsets and has worked with the Olympics committee and the World Cup. The company has collected a vast array of media rights through contracts with the likes of Cirque du Soleil, Ultimate Fighting Championship, ESPN, Fox Sports and NBC Sports, which allows the startup to get teams at events to produce content.
“So not only is it the venue, but it’s the technology behind it. It’s the production behind it. It’s the media rights. It’s the content creation,” Terry said.
Cosm’s second location in Texas is set to open at the end of August, and a third outpost in Atlanta is underway.
“(We’re) leaning into the human experience of being together, of the community aspect of fandom,” Terry said.