Immersive VR Education, the studio behind Apollo 11 VR, Titanic VR, and social VR education platform ENGAGE, today announced that it’s secured a €3 million (~$3.3 million) investment from HTC.
The investment follows a recent HTC Vive Ecosystem Conference held in Engage back in March, which would have otherwise been held in Shenzhen, China were it not for the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Immersive VR Education says in a press statement that the investment will be used to further develop and enhance Engage, build its sales and marketing capability, and fund the production of additional showcase experiences for Engage. The company’s platform allows educators to create bespoke VR experiences for both small and large format viewing, supporting up to 50 contemporaneous users on a variety of devices, including SteamVR headsets, Oculus Quest, Vive Focus Plus, and Pico headsets.
“In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is set to catalyse long-term changes in working practices, VRE and HTC’s combined offering provides a complete end-to-end service to alleviate the challenges posed by reduced travel due to health and climate change concerns,” said Immersive VR Education CEO David Whelan. “We look forward to this next stage of our development and continuing to work alongside HTC as a strategic partner and shareholder to provide these solutions for customers.”
HTC recently unveiled its own social VR platform Vive Sync, which focuses on enterprise users and businesses looking for a virtual meeting place.
As part of this agreement, HTC will appoint one non-executive director to the VRE board, the studio says. It’s not clear to what extent the studios will collaborate however, as both companies now appear to have similar products with admittedly divergent target markets.