VR Education founders David and Sandra Whelan with a VR demonstrator (centre). Image: Shane O’Neill, SON Photographic
Waterford VR firm is winning in the immersive experiences and education game.
Irish virtual reality (VR) tech firm VR Education, previously known as Immersive VR Education, has reported a 30pc increase in revenues to €300,000 in its first reported earnings since it listed on the London and Irish stock exchanges.
Trading as VR Education Holdings, the company said it is on target to reach its full-year target with total revenue figures expected to be heavily weighted towards H2.
The company listed on the London Stock Exchange and the Irish Stock Exchange in March this year, raising £6m in the process.
Immersive stuff
Since listing, the company has grown its staff from 20 people to 31, with key strategic hires including a CTO. “We have assembled a dedicated and talented team that will enable us to further our ambition and allow us to move forward on the primary goal of the company, which is to bring immersive technology to distance learning, and to transform how people all over the world learn and experience events both past and present,” said CEO David Whelan.
Whelan said that the company is working towards its first full commercial release in Q4.
During the year, the company launched its Titanic VR immersive experience on the PC, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality. Its Apollo 11 HD version will be released on these four mediums in early Q4. The company also revealed its 1943: Berlin Blitz experience in collaboration with the BBC and it was nominated for the Virtual Reality Film Award (Linear category) at the Venice Film Festival this month.
VR Education released a major update to its Engage Alpha platform on 30 July, with significantly increased functionality. This introduced the web application, the user account system and a new avatar system, among other major updates. “The full release version of our Engage platform will be released later this year,” Whelan said. “It aims to fully immerse the user into their learning experience, in order to increase learning retention and engagement. Its aim is to allow people to receive the best education, from the best educators from around the world, all from the comfort of their own home using virtual reality.”
VR Education, a previous Siliconrepublic.com Start-up of the Week, was founded by husband-and-wife team David and Sandra Whelan. A spin-out from Waterford Institute of Technology’s research-based TSSG, its platform provides VR content that can be used in schools, colleges, universities, research centres and corporate training to teach any subject in a virtual environment. Students can fully immerse themselves in the experience, making hard-to-visualise concepts easy to understand.
