vr training – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

May 19, 2022

Sense Arena Secures $3M to Expand Ice Hockey VR Training Tools, Add New Sports

VR ice hockey training company Sense Arena announced that it’s closed a $3 million investment round, something the startup says will be used to support continued development on its ice hockey training platform as well as expand to new sports.

The funding round was led by J&T Ventures, and includes previous backers Miton and SYNER. According to Crunchbase, this brings the company’s overall outside investment to just over $5 million.

Founded in 2017, the Prague-based company has already become the official VR training provider for a number of NHL teams, including the Arizona Coyotes, Las Vegas Golden Knights, Los Angeles Kings, and New Jersey Devils. Sense Arena counts 30 professional hockey teams, and nine NCAA programs (including Harvard, Northeastern, and Quinnipiac) and 40 individual NHL players and youth hockey organizations from around the world.

The company says its platform, which launched in 2018, is engineered to “enhance read-and-react skills and cognitive performance for both skaters and goalies” in combination with Meta Quest and standard hockey equipment. Sense Arena says it provides performance feedback and recommendations, allowing athletes to make adjustments and advancements in real time.

Check out a short explanation of what a coaching session looks like with some in-app footage, presented by Brian Daccord, Sense Arena’s Director of Goaltending Development and former NHL goaltending coach and scout.

“Some of the top hockey players currently training with Sense Arena include Philipp Grubauer of the Seattle Kraken, Dawson Mercer of the New Jersey Devils, and Northeastern University’s Devon Levi, who earned the 2022 Mike Richter Award given to the top goaltender in NCAA Division I men’s ice hockey,” the company says in a press statement.

“Sense Arena has developed cutting-edge virtual reality training to help athletes maximize their potential and we feel supremely confident in Bob’s vision for the future of sports training,” said Martin Kešner, co-founder of J&T Ventures. “We believe that Sense Arena has only scratched the surface of its potential. We are excited to help them elevate their technology and increase its application around the sports world.”

To date, the company has shipped over 2,500 installations of Sense Arena across 40 countries. You can check out the range of gear and requirements over at the Sense Arena Store for more.

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April 26, 2022

Maker of the Taser Acquires VR Studio to Bolster VR Police Training

Axon, the company best known for its Taser stun guns, has announced the acquisition of VR studio Foundry 45 which it says will bolster its VR training offerings.

Founded in 1993, Axon is the company behind the well known Taser stun guns which are employed by police and military forces around the world. In modern times the company has also focused on body cams and software for administration and management of public safety organizations. This month Axon announced the acquisition of the VR studio Foundry 45.

Formed in 2015, Foundry 45 has focused on combining VR with training and marketing. The company says it has built VR experiences for the likes of Delta Air Lines, The Weather Channel, AT&T, and others.

Axon, which has previously offered VR training, says the Foundry 45 team will merge with the existing Axon VR team to bolster the company’s ability to offer VR-based training solutions.

“Virtual reality is rapidly becoming a game-changing training tool across many industries, and the acquisition of Foundry 45 will help accelerate Axon to deliver innovative skills- and scenario-based training in public safety, and will catalyze Axon’s expansion into new growth markets globally,” the company said in its announcement of the acquisition.

Axon says its goal is to use “new immersive technologies to better prepare officers for real-life situations in the field. Axon’s VR products provide virtual reality content that helps officers develop critical thinking, de-escalation techniques and tactical skills across a diverse set of highly realistic scenarios.”

The acquisition appears to have been an all-stock deal, with Axon saying that 29,507 restricted stock units (valued around $3.87 million) were “granted to two individuals in connection with the acquisition,” with a vesting schedule of three years. Axon says the deal also includes up to an additional 15,249 restricted stock units (valued around $2 million) if the company’s VR unit achieves certain performance-based goals.

Axon—which calls its stun guns “non-lethal”—understandably has a vested interest in making sure the users of its Taser products are well trained. Not just for the safety of users and targets but also for liability and the company’s image, which hinges on claims that its weapons result in no serious injury in the vast majority of cases where they are deployed.

One unfortunate incident that recently brought the Taser into the public eye was the 2021 killing of Daunte Wright in Minnesota, in which an officer claimed to have accidentally pulled out and fired her firearm instead of her Taser.

And that isn’t the only time that mistaking a gun for a Taser. According to the Star Tribune there have been at least 16 cases in the US where officers mistook the two weapons, four of which resulted in deaths.

The promise of VR training is not only that it can feel more real—which has studied benefits to lasting recall—but also that it can be cheaper and easier for public safety organizations to deploy, allowing for more training time with a broader range of scenarios and less overhead.

Whether or not VR training could have helped avert the tragic situations mentioned above isn’t clear, but one can surely hope.

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March 24, 2022

Surgery Training Platform ‘Osso VR’ Secures $66M Series C Financing

Osso VR, the VR surgical training platform, today announced it’s closed a $66 million Series C financing round, something the company says will be used to broaden its VR surgical offering and hire more expert talent.

The Series C round was led by Oak HC/FT, which includes participation from Signalfire, GSR Ventures, Tiger Global Management and Kaiser Permanente Ventures.

This brings the company’s lifetime outside investment to around $109 million, with its $27 million Series B arriving in July 2021.

Founded in late 2016 by UCLA and Harvard-trained orthopedic surgeon Justin Barad, MD, Osso VR’s surgical training tech provides on-demand, educational experiences to surgeons with a focus on acquainting them with emerging techniques and technologies. The company works with industry leaders such as Johnson & Johnson, Stryker, Zimmer Biomet and Smith & Nephew.

More recently, Osso VR made strides during the COVID-19 pandemic since its VR training allows medical professionals to learn and practice from a distance. It provides modules across a number of fields, including orthopedics, endoscopy, and a host of interventional procedures.

The company has now grown to more than 150 employees, and Osso VR says it plans to grow “exponentially” over the next year.

“The future at Osso VR is incredibly bright. Each step of the way, we’ve stayed true to our mission to democratize healthcare and seen the results that our platform brings to surgical training and assessment,” said Barad. “This round of investment supports the next step of our journey to provide access to all healthcare professionals. I couldn’t be more excited to take this next step with such a talented, passionate team.”

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August 23, 2021

XR Training & Gaming Startup Touts $5.2M Investment and Lamar Jackson Partnership

XR startup StatusPRO has announced it has raised a $5.2 million seed investment. While the company hasn’t fully revealed its product, it says it’s using AR and VR to create immersive sports training and gaming experiences. Teasing a partnership with NFL quarterback Lamar Jackson, the company claims its tech will usher in “a new era of football.”

Earlier this month StatusPro announced a seed investment of $5.2 million, building on a partnership with NFL quarterback Lamar Jackson to create the Lamar Jackson Experience, which the company describes as “a suite of first-person virtual reality products that include an at-home virtual reality game, arcade games, and live activation.”

The seed round was led by KB Partners and TitletownTech, with participation from Greycroft, Verizon Ventures, Haslam Sports Group, 49ers Enterprises, SC Holdings, and “additional strategic celebrity investors.”

The minority-owned StatusPro says the capital will “accelerate the expansion of products aimed at reshaping how players and coaches prepare for games, while defining a new form of engagement between athletes and fans.”

The company is focused on both XR sports training and gaming. On the sports training side, the company hasn’t publicly detailed its platform, but claims it “uses real-time player data to power holographic experiences that give players the ability to simulate any practice or game scenario without the physical impact that comes with playing the game.” StatusPro claims its tech is being employed by “several” NFL teams, including Lamar Jackson’s Baltimore Ravens.

These XR training experiences also form the basis for fan-focused gaming experiences. That seems to be the idea behind the Lamar Jackson Experience, which the company has teased but not fully revealed. According to the company’s website, the experience is “coming soon on Oculus” (and probably Quest specifically, seeing as that’s the headset shown in the teaser).

“Like most people from my generation I am a huge gamer, and the first time I demoed the StatusPro experience I was blown away by how realistic and fun it was,” Lamar Jackson said in his StatusPro partnership announcement last year. “Ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to play in the NFL and now that I do, I am excited about sharing my experience with fans and especially kids through this VR gaming platform.”

StatusPro claims that “Lamar Jackson has been an integral part of the development, strategic planning and promotion of these experiences, and a true partner in all aspects.”

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July 26, 2021

Rezzil Secures $2.75M Investment for Oculus Quest Sports Training App ‘Player 22’

Rezzil, a UK-based VR sports training and analytics startup, announced that its secured an investment round of over £2 million (~$2.75 million), which will be used to promote its new consumer-focused sports training platform, Player 22.

Rezzil’s investors include soccer professionals Thierry Henry, Gary Neville, Vincent Kompany, Michail Antonio, Tyrone Mings, and Anthony Watson. According to Crunchbase data, this brings the Manchester-based company’s overall investment to £3.8 million (~$5.25 million).

Founded in 2017, Rezzil produces tools for post-match analysis, virtual training and rehabilitation with the ability to monitor and track player recovery. Now the company is getting ready to pitch its pro-focused tech to consumers with Player 22, an at-home training app compatible with Oculus Quest. Like its enterprise training tech, it was designed and tested by UEFA pro licensed coaches.

“Rezzil is at the forefront of the virtual reality revolution and enables people to experience sport like never before and athletes to train, crucially, without adding load,” investor and former English Premiere League player Gary Neville says. “This is a key consideration for managers that want to maintain the peak physical condition of their players, to ensure that they can perform to their optimum, on the pitch.”

When it launches on Quest July 29th, Player 22 will offer up a number of sport-based games designed to improve cognitive performance, concentration, reaction times, coordination and control. You can wishlist it on Quest here.

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July 7, 2021

Teslasuit Partners With Surgical Institute for Immersive ХR Training

When it comes to training healthcare professionals using the latest immersive technology precision is everything. While platforms like Osso VR provide virtual scenarios, hardware companies are also being tapped for their solutions. VR Electronics Ltd – the maker of Teslasuit – has announced a new partnership with the Innovation Institute at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) to use its full-body system to help collect data on use cases such as performance training and next-generation rehabilitation.

A specialist centre for orthopaedics, rheumatology, and related disciplines, HSS will be using the diagnostic capabilities of the Teslasuit – its sensors cover 95% of a users muscle mass – to develop advance personalized, real-time diagnostics, training and physical rehabilitation. Thus allowing physicians to analyze biometry and movement data for diagnostics and monitoring purposes.

“Our products’ effectiveness for enhancing human performance is already proven for XR synthetic training across many of the world’s largest companies and research institutions. So partnering with HSS makes perfect sense to utilize Teslasuit’s technologies in innovative medicine, combining our advanced systems’ technologies and joint expertise. Together we can significantly improve the quality of patient care,” said Sergei Nossoff, CEO of VR Electronics Ltd in a statement. “Our partnership with the Hospital for Special Surgery will extend our capability to be at the forefront of immersive technology, powering the future of medical healthcare solutions.”

The Teslasuit has been on the market for a couple of years now, originally debuting at CES 2018. Priced at $12,999 USD, the full-body suit has been designed for a range of professional use cases, whether that’s for biometric data as mentioned, to haptic feedback to improve situational awareness and motion capture.

“HSS has a unique responsibility and opportunity to advance the field of musculoskeletal health, combining our expertise and state-of-the-art technology for better wellness, injury prevention, diagnosis, treatment and recovery,” Louis A. Shapiro, President and CEO of HSS adds. “This partnership with Teslasuit is another example of how we are fulfilling our purpose, to help people get back to what they need and love to do better than any other place in the world.”

There are a lot of exciting developments when it comes to the XR and healthcare industries collaborating with HSS and VR Electronics Ltd’s new partnership just the latest example. As further updates on this collaboration are revealed, VRFocus will let you know.

July 7, 2021

Osso VR Raises $27m To Grow its Surgical Training Solution

There’s been plenty of virtual reality (VR) investment news already this month with the latest coming from surgical training specialist Osso VR. The company has announced the completion of a $27 million USD Series B funding round to help it expand its training platform.

The round was led by GSR Ventures, with participation from Signalfire, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, OCA Ventures, Scrum Ventures, Leslie Ventures and Anorak Ventures. The funding will help Osso VR maintain the rapid growth the company saw during 2020 when multinationals like Johnson & Johnson, Stryker, and Smith & Nephew looked towards digital training models because of the pandemic.

“Osso VR is positioned to transform how surgeons are trained on new devices and surgical procedures,” said Dr. Sunny Kumar, a partner at GSR Ventures in a statement. “The Osso platform’s level of immersion provides an experience that mirrors the operating room in a manner more efficient, more accessible, and more effective than any surgical training platform that’s come before.”

Founded in 2016, Osso VR allows surgeons, sales teams and other trainees within the healthcare profession to safely carry out procedures as many times as they like, all inside a highly realistic training environment. With a surgical training library offering 120+ modules in 10+ specialities, these range from orthopaedics and endoscopy to interventional procedures and more.

“After proving the clinical effectiveness of the platform and its unique ability to scale up to the millions of providers around the world, we are ready to accelerate,” said Justin Barad, MD, CEO and Co-Founder of Osso VR. “With this latest round, we plan to exponentially expand our library and platform so that every patient in the world can have the peace of mind knowing they are getting access to the safest, highest-value procedures.”

Currently deployed in over 20 countries, Osso VR is available in multiple languages and used in hospital residency programs at Brown University, Johns Hopkins University and more. Previously, Osso VR raised $14m in its Series A funding round which also featured GSR Ventures.

As Osso VR continues to improve its training platform, VRFocus will keep you updated.

July 2, 2021

XR Training Provider Virti Completes $10m Funding Round

It’s been a very successful week for virtual reality (VR) companies raising funds with the likes of Fast Travel Games and MyDearest both completing multimillion rounds. Adding to that list is Virti, a specialist in providing training solutions to organisations which has just secured $10 million USD in a Series A funding round.

Led by IQ Capital, the $10m round also saw the participation of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and a new, UK-based learning technology VC fund. Thanks to the funding raise Virti will be able to continue its international growth whilst researching and developing new technologies to improve its training platform. That growth has seen Virti’s revenues grow 978% in the past year as well as doubling the company’s workforce.

Virti’s technology helps organisations train staff on various skills such as communication, teamwork and decision-making under pressure using interactive simulations and AI-powered data analysis. Companies can even build their own bespoke training modules using its cloud-based, no-code simulation creation suite. These modules are able to analyse user performance using computer-vision AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP), providing useable analytics to further improve performance. For example, in 2020 the NHS used Virti to help train employees at scale on COVID-19 procedures.

“At Virti, our goal is to maximise human performance by making experiential learning affordable and accessible for everyone,” said Dr Alexander Young, CEO and founder of Virti in a statement. “In-person training has always been expensive with e-learning often unengaging – and research shows that employees forget upwards of 80% of episodic training. Virti exists to help organisations get the very best out of their people, by improving how teams train, learn and perform using scalable deep learning technology with a focus on soft-skills.”

“On-the-job training can be serendipitous, with the learning experience varying significantly depending on where you are, what day it is and who is training you. Soft skills also tend to be subjectively assessed in most settings. We’re providing the tools to help organisations create and distribute evidence-based training, which can be standardised and scaled across organisations and geographies,” Young continues. “The data insights our platform generates reduce training variability and generate objective feedback that can aid real-world improvement – with the ultimate goal of improving human performance around the globe.”

As Virti continues to improve its training solutions, VRFocus will keep you updated.

June 23, 2021

Moth+Flame Raises $2.5M to Expand Its Immersive VR Work Training Tech

Moth+Flame, a creator of VR training software, today announced it’s garnered $2.5 million in seed funding to expand the scale of its workplace VR training technology.

The New York-based company’s latest funding round was led by Bee Partners with additional investment from First In, Meeting Street Capital, Service Provider Capital, Spacecadet, and Dan Farah, producer of Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of Ready Player One. According to Crunchbase, this follows a May 2021 raise which amounted to $2.6 million.

Founded in 2015, Moth+Flame currently develop a few VR training platforms, namely READY VR and PromiseVR, which respectively focus on the acquisition of hard and soft job skills. With the natural language processing and realistically simulated environments, the company’s VR training tech is said to actively engage users by letting them use their own voice in conversations with human actors.

To see PromiseVR in action, check out the three-minute video below, which shows the company’s workplace racial bias training.

“From confronting critical issues like racial bias and suicide prevention to powering immersive learning for pilots and office workers, Moth+Flame’s technology ushers in a new future of education,” said Kevin Cornish, CEO and Founder of Moth+Flame. “Our investors recognize the important work we do and have armed us with the tools we need to grow faster than ever.”

Moth+Flame’s READY VR is currently used by the United States Air Force, via the company’s tailor-made pilot and maintenance training, which encompasses 12 aircraft models. The US Air Force has also licensed suicide and sexual assault prevention curriculum from Moth + Flame.

Moth+Flame has also worked with a number of other high-profile customers, including Netflix, Accenture, IMAX, Estee Lauder Companies, Google, Oculus, AMC, Discovery, MTV, AT&T, Ram Truck, AMD and Taylor Swift.

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June 23, 2021

VR Training Company Moth+Flame Closes $2.5 Million Funding Round

One interesting aspect of virtual reality’s (VR) growth was been its implementation as a training tool for companies and international organisations alike. Moth+Flame is one of those dedicated to this particular field, revealing today that it has closed a $2.5 million USD seed funding round to continue developing its VR training platforms.

The round was led by Bee Partners with additional investment from First In, Meeting Street Capital, Service Provider Capital, Spacecadet, and Dan Farah, producer of Ready Player One. The funding will be used to scale Moth+Flame’s operations which revolve around its READY VR and PromiseVR training platforms.

Like other VR training platforms, READY VR and PromiseVR put users inside simulated real-world environments so that every scenario is as lifelike as possible. Utilising AI and natural language processing for hard and soft skill training, READY VR focuses on hard skills like maintenance and safety procedures whilst PromiseVR is all about soft skills; situational awareness and customer service for example.

“Through PromiseVR, we have quickly expanded Moth+Flame’s business into the workplace, as the demand for corporate immersive training programs has never been higher,” said Kevin Cornish, CEO and Founder of Moth+Flame in a statement. “We’re the only solution that can upskill and train the next-gen workforce, while also providing technology built to address the strict security requirements of the military. From confronting critical issues like racial bias and suicide prevention to powering immersive learning for pilots and office workers, Moth+Flame’s technology ushers in a new future of education. Our investors recognize the important work we do and have armed us with the tools we need to grow faster than ever.”

“Moth+Flame’s VR technology addresses some of the most pressing and nuanced issues faced in the workplace today,” said Accenture Managing Director, North American Public Sector Molly Tierney. “At Accenture, we’ve seen firsthand how immersive training can make an incredible, long-lasting impact in a short time. Moth+Flame ushers in a bright future for our world at work and at large.”

Moth+Flame’s clients also include the US Air Force with the training company developing both pilot and maintenance training for 12 aircraft, as well as a curriculum for suicide and sexual assault prevention.

As the VR training industry continues to grow VRFocus will keep you updated on the latest developments.