OpenVault said it has secured "significant funding" from three small operators -- Service Electric Cablevision, Service Electric Cable TV & Communications and Blue Ridge Communications -- to help it move into the next stage of its development. Terms were not disclosed.

“The Service Electric companies and Blue Ridge share a vision of the connected future and their collaborative approach to working with technology companies is helping to spur innovation that is driving the broadband industry forward,” OpenVault co-founder and CEO  Mark Trudeau said in a press release. “Their investment will bring a new dimension to our long-term partnership, and we’re excited to use the funds to expand our reach and accelerate our growth.”

OpenVault, based in Hoboken, N.J., helps broadband suppliers optimize and monetize their networks. In a press release, the company said the investment from the three cable operators, who are also customers, will help it accelerate growth domestically and internationally, most notably in Europe and Latin America.

“As broadband has increased in prominence, companies such as OpenVault have played essential roles in supporting our delivery of high-quality services,” Blue Ridge Communications and Pencor Services president David Masenheimer said in a press release. “By making a direct investment in OpenVault, we can be financial catalysts to their growth, while providing strategic guidance that can help them align product technology development with industry needs.”

Point Broadband, a high-speed internet service provider based in West Point, Georgia, said it has received an investment from private equity firm GTCR to help accelerate its expansion plans. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Point Broadband was founded in 2017 and offers fiber-to-the-premises broadband service to residential and business customers in several markets east of the Mississippi River. The company said it is actively expanding its footprint via FTTP builds in near adjacent markets,  and that the investment from GTCR will help accelerate plans to expand its network into underserved communities. 

"GTCR's strategic investment will help accelerate the deployment of our fiber-based broadband solutions to a range of markets, including small town USA and rural America," Point Broadband co-founder and CEO Todd Holt said in a press release. "GTCR shares our core values of customer service and community engagement and has a proven track record of deploying capital to build state-of-the-art broadband networks. We are excited to welcome GTCR to the Point Broadband family as we enter our next phase of growth."

Stifel served as lead financial advisor and Houlihan Lokey served as co-financial advisor to Point Broadband. Credit Suisse and Rothschild & Co. served as financial advisors and Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal advisor to GTCR.

"Point Broadband has a strong focus on best-in-class customer service supported by a localized presence in the communities they serve, and we believe Point is well-positioned to serve the growing demand for broadband services in markets across the nation," GTCR managing director Mark Anderson said in a press release. 

MORE FROM THE VR SPECIAL REPORT: Meet the VR Headsets | Littlstar Builds VR Content Constellation

RELATED:'Virtual Reality -- Ready for a Closeup' Webinar, Feb. 24, with Andrew Trickett (Merge VR) and Tony Mugavero (Littlstar), moderated by Next TV editor Jeff Baumgartner

Virtual reality and 360-degree video are currently just a small segment of the market, but they’re gathering plenty of attention, and piles of cold hard cash, from investors looking to place bets on the Next Big Thing.

The good news for VR is that the segment is teeming with startups that have built or are developing products and content for a market that, by some estimates, is poised to explode. Goldman Sachs thinks VR and AR (augmented reality) could generate up to $182 billion in revenue (content, software and hardware) by 2025, and eclipse TV revenue.

Some large companies have already placed sizable bets. Facebook paid $2 billion for Oculus, a company at the forefront of the market. Microsoft has been spending heavily and getting lots of buzz for an augmented reality initiative that centers on the HoloLens. Secretive AR/VR startup Magic Leap recently raised a monster-sized $800 million “C” round.

And we’re still waiting to find out what Apple’s play will be. CEO Tim Cook said on the company’s earnings call last month that he doesn’t view VR as a geeky niche. “It’s really cool and has some interesting applications,” he said, an indication that Apple won’t be sitting on the sidelines for long.

VR has also attracted attention from the pay TV industry. Comcast Ventures, Comcast’s VC arm, has announced investments in three startups focused on VR content and technology: AltSpaceVR, NextVR and Baobab Studios, a company specializing in animated virtual reality content.

“We’re excited about virtual reality as well as augmented reality,” Gavin Teo, a principal at Comcast Ventures said. “Going forward, we’re going to continue to invest in this space.”

Comcast Ventures hasn’t said where else in the sector it might splash some cash, but cinematic virtual reality and gaming are two content genres the VC firm could explore in 2016 and 2017, Teo said.

VR market growth will mirror that seen by mobile, Teo said, because it’s tapping into such existing distribution forms as over-the-top video and mobile app stores. The next question is how the storytelling and content-creation tools will evolve for filmmakers and game creators.

“I think 2015 was the year that the technology got there,” he said. “It was a good [year] for camera hardware and transport hardware. 2016 will be the year where you start to see consumer adoption of headsets.”

VR appears poised to go mass market in 2017 or 2018, he said. “But I think there is a market today, and business models are starting to take shape.”

The Gear VR and Google Cardboard viewers are already available, while more advanced platforms such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Sony PlayStation VR will hit the market later this year.

Privately funded Merge Labs released its foam-based, $99 Merge VR viewer in November 2015. It hopes to draw a mass audience, but is keeping its future financial plans under wraps. The company has received “a bit of interest from traditional investors and private-equity investors” pursuing the VR sector, company co-founder Andrew Trickett said. “We’ll keep trucking along and executing with our heads down. We’ll consider them [funding opportunities] as they come in front of us.”

Merge Labs isn’t releasing sales data, but “we have demand exceeding supply … We’re also getting swamped [with inquiries] from brick-and-mortar stores. They are seeing that VR is going to be hot.”