Waterford-based VR Education says revenue from its “Engage” platform “continues to accelerate”.
R Education develops virtual reality (VR) training and education products that facilitate collaboration on remote tasks, content creation, and learning.
Demand for work and remote events, as well as remote learning tools, has exploded during the Covid-19 blockades.
Revenue generated by the Engage platform was expected to be around 1.25 million euros during the first half of this year, an increase of 84% over the previous year, according to a brief commercial update of the company.
VR Education expects to report a gross margin of 80 pc during the first half of the year, an increase of 10 pc over the previous year.
The company said it has been hired by new and existing customers to hold “significant events” on the Engage software platform.
During the first half of 2021, Engage’s revenue accounted for 72% of the listed company’s total revenue, compared to 39% in 2020. The platform reached the milestone of 100 commercial customers in May, including Abbott Laboratories, KPMG, MongoDB and the United States Department of State. .
In addition, a US multinational client (with a market capitalization in excess of $ 100 billion) has signed a six-figure agreement for an event to showcase its product innovation, history and sustainability initiatives on the platform. .
Last month the company raised 9 million euros in an oversubscribed share placement.
David Whelan, CEO of VR Education, said: “Our performance during the first half of 2021 is a testament to the significant progress the group has made.”
“Engage has become a leader in the world of virtual communications that is shown through our growing customer base of quality business customers. The recent six-figure agreement with an existing US multinational customer demonstrates the ‘Success of our strategy of building long-term partnerships with our customers’.
In January, the firm launched a strategy to achieve an annual revenue target of € 10 million for Engage between 2023 and 2025.
Taiwanese consumer electronics company HTC Corporation invested € 3 million in VR Education last year in exchange for a 20% stake in the Irish business. HTC may be present on the board of VR Education as long as its stake remains above 10%.
The agreement with HTC includes a strategic partnership for the worldwide distribution and licensing of the Engage platform.
VR Education raised £ 6 million (€ 7 million) when it was listed on the London and Ireland stock exchanges in 2018.
The group’s provisional results for the six months are due to be published on 14 September.