Can Immersive Make Money?
A practical session exploring the financial, operating and structural choices behind immersive shows – and how producers and operators can build projects that capital can understand and price.
Immersive and experiential shows promise outsized engagement – but they carry a financial and operating profile unlike traditional live entertainment, and supply is flooding in faster than the industry can explain what actually drives value.
This Experience Briefing breaks down the sector challenges, operating metrics and capital structure choices.
The goal: provide producers and operators a framework for building shows capital can actually price correctly.
Immersive entertainment presents a particular challenge for producers, operators and investors.
The creative proposition may be clear. The audience response may be strong. But understanding how an immersive show creates value – and translating that into a financial structure that producers, operators and capital providers can all understand – is less straightforward.
In this session, Neil Chakravarti, Principal and Co-founder of EVOQ Ventures, will examine the financial and structural considerations behind building immersive shows.
Drawing on more than 25 years across media, technology and investment banking, alongside his current work financing and building immersive entertainment businesses, Neil will explore how the sector can develop a clearer shared framework for assessing projects.
The session will explore:
- How the financial and operating profile of immersive shows differs from traditional live entertainment
- The wider sector challenges affecting how immersive projects are understood and financed
- The role of operating metrics in explaining what actually drives value
- The capital structure choices available when building immersive shows
- How producers and operators can structure projects so that investors can better understand and price them
- How creative, operational and financial considerations interact when developing a viable immersive project
At London Experience Week 2026, Neil took part in Tug Of War: The Dance Between Creative And Finance, exploring the relationship between creative ambition, guest experience, commercial viability and financial risk.
This session takes that conversation into the specific financial and structural challenges facing immersive shows – giving producers and operators a clearer framework for understanding how their projects look through the lens of capital.
Who is it for?
- Producers developing immersive and experiential shows
- Operators responsible for running immersive entertainment
- Founders and business leaders developing new experiential concepts
- Investors and finance professionals evaluating immersive projects
- Creative and production leaders who want to better understand the commercial structures behind their work
- Anyone working on the financial or operational model for an immersive entertainment project
About Neil Chakravarti
Neil Chakravarti has worked across media, technology and investment banking for more than 25 years.
He is currently Principal and Co-founder at EVOQ Ventures, which focuses on financing immersive entertainment, as well as Co-founder of immersive live entertainment company Shocap and film studio Branded To Film.
Neil has founded, built and exited two media businesses. Earlier in his career he worked in investment banking at JPMorgan across New York, Toronto and London, primarily covering technology, media and telecoms. He is also an active angel investor, advisor and board member across media and technology businesses.
How to watch this Experience Briefing:
- Experience Briefings are available for WXO members only
- To join the WXO, please head to our Application page
- The WXO is a global home for the leaders, shapers and doers in the Experience Economy
- As a member, you’ll get live access to Experience Briefings like this one plus unlock an on demand library of over 100 recordings
Timings:
Session #2 is suitable for those in the US or Europe, but everyone is welcome! Here’s when we kick off in your time zone:
- London: 17:55 – 19:00
- Paris: 18:55 – 20:00
- Los Angeles: 09:55 – 11:00
- Santa Fe: 10:55 – 12:00
- Chicago: 11:55 – 13:00
- New York: 12:55 – 14:00
- São Paulo, Santiago & Buenos Aires: 13:55 – 15:00