BAB Accelerate: Immersing into the US

For founders of start-ups and SME companies who are growing – or planning to grow – their transatlantic trade, our Accelerate Roundtables create a unique peer-led conversation around relevant case study remarks – At this roundtable we will hear from Tom Symonds, CEO of Virtual Reality Company Immerse and their rapid growth in the US.

The Immerse Platform has been built for enterprise from the ground up, working closely with customers to identify their real needs and applications across multiple sectors. It utilised an enterprise-grade cloud service for management, deployment and reporting of collaborative VR training applications.

Only 14% of the world’s major companies are not currently engaged with immersive technology at some level, and with current challenges faced as a result of the Covid-19 crisis accelerating the need to find alternative training solutions through digital platforms, this number is set to diminish even further in 2021. With the increase in demand, Immerse saw their software license revenues grow by more than 300% in the last 12 months.

Due to this growth, they have added new key hires in the U.S. as they expand their U.S. operations. Cathy Hackl, global strategic advisor and Johnathan Sutherlin, an XR/VR/AR business expert joined the U.S. team to accelerate the growth of their global strategic relationships and through its Immerse Platform, empower organizations to revolutionize their employee experiences with boosted engagement, an upskilled workforce, and increased performance and retention.

The Immerse customer base focuses on enterprise training, including industries with urgent response times, from pharma and life sciences to fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), energy, and more, all who must reskill and upskill for peak performance, especially to meet the more than 1 billion jobs that could be transformed by technology (source, OECD). Businesses can put any VR content on the platform, make it securely available to anybody in their organisation and then deliver it to hundreds of standalone headsets, with data gathered centrally.

More recently, Immerse has partnered with Make Real Ltd to enable enterprise organisations to access a library of virtual reality training content that will be available through the Immerse Platform. This initiative is the first step for Immerse in their pursuit to build an ecosystem where the Immerse Platform will empower and enable organisations to embrace the future of training in the workplace. This partnership will create an all-in-one solution for enterprise organisations, highlighting the strength and capabilities of the UK VR industry to a global customer base, with customers already including Shell, DHL, Vodafone and Lloyds Banking Group.