We’ve raised £1m to target the US market
We’re excited to announce that we’ve raised a further £1m from the North East Venture Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Mercia Ventures.
The latest investment follows our success in winning a seven-figure contract from a major Middle East oil provider. It will help us to deliver the project and target other overseas markets, in particular in the US.
Our end-to-end platform enables developers to create metaverse-style training programmes and simulate real-life scenarios, for example for health and safety training. It is particularly popular with clients in the energy, manufacturing and industrial sectors.
Our ‘self-service’ VR content authoring tool, FLOW will be launched in late summer and will make the technology accessible to a wider audience by allowing companies to create virtual reality content themselves without the need to write code.
Just in case you’re not aware of the backstory of Luminous XR, we were founded in 2006 as a 3D mapping specialist and moved into virtual reality ten years later. Mercia first backed Luminous XR in 2017 and has provided successive rounds of investment from its own funds and from the NEVF to enable us to develop our products and grow the business. The latest funding brings the total raised to date to £3.55m.
We now employ 30 staff and will be relocating to our new HQ just along The Ouseburn in Upper Steenbergs Yard. The company also has an office in Bahrain and has recently established a presence in Texas, USA.
Ben Bennett, CEO of Luminous XR said: “Luminous is used by the biggest brands in the industrial and manufacturing sectors who have the highest training standards. Our XR platform is paving the way for the adoption of Extended Reality training, providing a scalable, secure solution with many advanced features. The current funding round will now allow us to grow our sales and marketing as we expand globally.
Chris McCourt of Mercia Ventures added: “Luminous XR’s system enables companies to recreate real-life scenarios and offer more effective training at lower cost. With the use of virtual reality growing worldwide, companies are waking up to its potential. The latest funding will enable Ben and the team to capitalise on this trend and continue their growth by targeting the US and other global markets.”
We’re incredibly excited for the next year ahead.