Paris, January 14, 2020 – A Vive X company, startup Immersive Factory offers virtual reality-based training exercises on HSE (Occupational Health, Safety and Environment) over its online platform inspired by real-life situations and created in partnership with industrial groups.
Founded three years ago by Olivier Pierre (CEO), Bertrand Pierre (CCO) and two other co-founders Philippe Timsit and Francis Savic, Immersive Factory has announced that it has raised funds of $1.1 million from WaterStart Capital (NCI).
Accelerated by the HTC VIVE X program in London and Shell LiveWIRE in France, Immersive Factory currently employs approximately 30 people divided between its administrative and sales headquarters in Paris and its R&D centre in Albi, which is focused on creating virtual reality training and enhancing the platform used to deliver the exercises.
“Experience is the best teacher…” this phrase perfectly illustrates Immersive Factory’s vision of what teaching and learning are all about. VR training has a far more superior impact to conventional training courses, since it can be used to simulate hazardous situations and expose trainees to the risks in their jobs with the aim of reducing the rate of accidents at work and improving behaviour.
Once immersed in a realistic virtual environment, trainees can practice procedures and, if applicable, experience what happens when safety rules are violated. By the end of the course, managers can access accurate statistical charts on the errors made by their employees during the immersive experience. Organizations can use virtual reality courses to not only assess their employees’ behaviour, but also deliver objective debriefing sessions to truly lead change and improve safety at work.
Immersive Factory counts nearly one hundred companies as key customers including: Shell, Colas, Siemens, Moët Hennessy, Suez, Volvo, P&G, Engie, Airbus, EDF, Veolia, Saint Gobain, Orano, Eiffage, Bureau Veritas, and Air Liquide. To support its customers when deploying virtual reality across and to promote its platform, Immersive Factory has set up an international retailer network that already boasts over 40 partners.
The fundraising campaign is aimed at scaling up Immersive Factory’s deployment on a global level to support its customers at all of their sites and meet the need to renew training methods on occupational health and safety.
Olivier Pierre, CEO of Immersive Factory: “Virtual reality allows us to reproduce workplace situations with life-like accuracy. It represents a real asset for improving our customers’ occupational health and safety training. Courses are tailored to both new employees and people who left high school many years ago. The fun approach with our courses can rekindle everyone’s interest in learning, increase their ability to absorb new information and break down any cultural barriers. Virtual reality is a leading-edge technology that can be used to achieve these ambitious teaching goals.”
“Since Immersive Factory was founded, we have endeavoured to mainstream and simplify access to VR-based HSE courses by offering our customers an entire multilingual catalog that can be downloaded online from our platform and used immediately with VR headsets, which nowadays are standalone and easy to deploy.”
Dave Haynes, Director of Developer Ecosystem & Vive X, EMEA: “As an early investor in Immersive Factory, we are thrilled to see this new fundraise. This new capital will allow the company to accelerate the growth of their innovative VR training solutions currently being used by global enterprise customers on VIVE headsets such as the VIVE Pro and Focus Plus.”
About Immersive Factory
Immersive Factory has pioneered the first platform of VR training exercises focusing on occupational health and safety. The company develops most of the platform’s content in partnership with key account customers (Shell, Veolia, Volvo, Colas, Saint Gobain, Suez, Air Liquide, Engie, Aviva, Vinci, etc.). Exercises can be downloaded from the platform and are modeled on real-life situations, while drawing on the benefits inherent in active learning: virtual reality gives trainees a leading role in their HSE course. “Experience is the best teacher” and what we feel is a greater teacher still… this phrase perfectly illustrates our vision of what teaching and learning are all about.
https://immersivefactory.com/
About HTC Vive
HTC VIVE is the premier virtual reality (VR) platform and ecosystem that creates true-to-life VR experiences for businesses and consumers. The VIVE ecosystem is built around premium VR hardware, software, and content. The VIVE business encompasses best-in-class XR hardware; VIVEPORT platform and app store; VIVE Enterprise Solutions for business customers; VIVE X, a $100M VR business accelerator; VIVE STUDIOS, an entertainment, gaming, and enterprise content studio; and VIVE ARTS for cultural initiatives. For more information on VIVE, please visit www.vive.com.