Today, HTC Vive in collaboration with Immerse UK have released the UK Immersive Tech: VC Investment Report, providing a deep-dive into 31 XR startups who have managed to raise significant amounts of investment. The report not only looks at how some of these companies achieved their success in a difficult market but also highlights investor interest in enterprise-focused technology.
Investment in the XR industry has ebbed and flowed over the years with significant interest in and around 2016, whilst a couple of years later it declined due to the initial hype wearing off. Yet initiatives like HTC Vive’s Vive X programme has continued throughout, supporting over 100 companies in the process. In this first report, Vive X and Immerse UK have produced looking at the UK’s immersive sector and how despite the pandemic have managed to thrive.
“Firstly, despite its drawbacks for the overall economy, the immersive sector has been well placed to benefit from the global pandemic. Lockdowns all over the world have led to consumers looking to virtual worlds to spend more of their leisure time and connect with others,” says Dave Haynes, Director of Development Ecosystem & Vive X EMEA in the report. “Whilst, workers and their employers have thrown out old ways of working, turning to technologies such as VR to collaborate, design together or host and attend virtual events.”
Regular readers of VRFocus will notice some very familiar names among those listed, each involved in very different segments of the industry. Anything World, for example, enables creators to bring 3D models to life simply using their voice, whilst Bodyswaps focuses on soft skills training, its most recent module is a job interview simulator.
- Anything World – Total financing £600K
- Bodyswaps – Total financing £549K
- FitXR – Total financing £6.91m
- FundamentalVR – Total financing £7.6m
- Gravity Sketch – Total financing £4.25m
- Loveshark – Total financing undisclosed
- Maze Theory – Total financing £1.85m
- Poplar – Total financing £2.75m
- Ultraleap – Total financing £63m
- VividQ – Total financing £6.5m
Immerse UK’s 21 XR Startups to watch
- Beem
- Darabase
- Dubbl
- Edify
- Evidential Reality
- Factory 42
- Generic Robotics
- GiveVision
- Holoxica
- Igloo Vision
- KageNova
- KIT-AR
- Masters of Pie
- Rescape Innovation
- RETiniZE
- REWIND
- Tiny Rebel Games
- Virti
- VU.CITY
- XR Games
- XYZ Reality
The report also conducted a survey of 50 UK-based investors who had a positive outlook for the next 12 months. Out of those surveyed, 63% think overall investment will increase with a notable lean towards enterprise VR/AR.
As UK-based XR companies continue to make strides in the industry, VRFocus will keep you updated.
It is therefore somewhat rarer to find reports have been commissioned that somewhat focus on the here and now and rarer still for them specifically to focus on a specific country other than the U.S. But, hot on the heels of last week’s story about the developments in the UK virtual reality (VR) job market and how in the last 24 month 
“This report quantifies and describes a fast-growing, confident and export intensive industry that is already adding economy value to the UK. Its findings provide the insights and intelligence needed to better support the complex needs of this emerging business community. It reveals the richness of its activity and the extent of its economic significance.” Says Immerse UK’s Fiona Kilkelly. “The ingredients are there to establish the UK as a world-leader, and we will work to ensure that the support and investment is in place to maximise their potential.”