Upload VR startup raised $4.5 million Series A from Colopl, General Catalyst last year

Upload, which shifted the “UploadVR” brand to its media arm earlier this year, closed a funding round in September of last year raising $4.5 million, TechCrunch has learned. The timing of the previously unreported funding round was alluded to in a sexual harassment lawsuit filed yesterday by a former employee.

The funding round was led by Colopl. Other participants in the $4.5 million Series A include General Catalyst, NetEase, Sparkland Capital, Unity Ventures, CRCM, GREE, Greycroft’s GC Tracker fund, Outpost Capital, David Chao and Julia Popowitz, an Upload spokesperson tells us.

The virtual reality startup previously raised a $1.25 million seed round from China’s Shanda Group as well as a number of angel investors.

An Upload spokesperson told TechCrunch in an email that these funds will be (and have been) used to “expand Upload‘s three core domains: co-working, education and media, with a focus on Upload LA and the official launch of Upload EDU.”

The startup just opened a massive 20,000 square-foot office in Los Angeles last month, where it is heavily emphasizing its education initiatives, which it has built up in collaboration with Google, HTC and Udacity. Upload’s San Francisco office houses more than 35 companies in its co-working space.

The company currently has 17 full-time employees and “an army of contractors,” the startup tells us.

Yesterday, TechCrunch reported that the company’s former Director of Digital and Social Media was suing the company for sexual harassment, sex and gender discrimination and wrongful termination. The suit against the company and its co-founders alleged that the startup was a “boy’s club” that was “marked by rampant sexual behavior and focus, creating an unbearable environment” for female employees. Both Upload, Inc. and UploadVR, Inc. were named as defendants in the suit.