Irish VR tech company makes dual listing on stock markets

Waterford based start-up, Immersive VR Education, is pleased to announce that its holding company, VR Education Holdings plc, has today commenced trading on the London and Irish stock markets.  This listing by the virtual reality software and technology company represents the first initial public offering (IPO) for an Irish tech company on the Irish Stock Exchange’s Enterprise Securities Market (ESM) since inception in 2005.

Trading in the group’s ordinary shares commenced on the AIM (Alternative Investment Market) of the London Stock Exchange and on the ESM Market of the Irish Stock Exchange.  As part of the Admission process, the Company has raised STG6 million (EUR6.7 million) before expenses, through an oversubscribed placing of 60,000,000 new ordinary shares at a placing price of 10p each implying a market capitalisation of circa STG19.3 million (EUR21.6 million) on Admission.

Shard Capital Partners LLP and Davy are Joint Brokers to the Group and Cairn Financial Advisers LLP is acting as Nominated Adviser. Davy is also acting as ESM advisor.

Overview

• Virtual reality (VR) software and technology group is focused on transforming the delivery and effectiveness of digital education and corporate training
• £6 million (gross of expenses) raised to further develop virtual social learning and presentation platform, ENGAGE; advance its marketing strategy and produce new showcase VR content
• ENGAGE to be rolled-out during 2018 – allows educators and trainers to hold lessons, meetings and presentations in a safe, virtual, multi-user environment as well as create pre-recorded or live content
• Current early revenues from showcase VR experiences including award-winning Apollo 11 VR and Titanic VR
• Blue-chip partners include Oxford University, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and the BBC
• Strong market dynamics with rapidly increasing use of VR as well as Augmented and Mixed Reality
• Highly experienced and successful management team

Founded in 2014 by David and Sandra Whelan, Immersive VR Education utilises leading edge virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies to enhance digital learning through its fully immersive learning and presentation platform, ENGAGE.  The Group’s core focus is the development and commercialisation of ENGAGE for creating, sharing and delivering proprietary and third party VR content for educational and corporate training purposes.  A key feature of ENGAGE is the ability for educators and trainers to use the software to create their own VR lessons and presentations on ENGAGE using VR tools provided by the Group or third parties.

David Whelan, CEO, said, “The AR/VR market is growing at a fast rate; as hardware becomes more affordable, this growth will undoubtedly gain further traction and we are at the forefront of this. 

“As a VR software and technology group operating in the niche education sector, we provide students, educators and corporate trainers with a real alternative to attending brick and mortar institutes; benefits include cost-savings and course completion rates amongst others.  Having raised £6 million and with the support of our new shareholders, our focus is now on strengthening our network of educational institutions and corporations, which already includes the likes of Oxford University and the BBC, and building our sales team to roll-out and position ENGAGE as the go-to platform of choice for digital education and simulated training globally.  Furthermore, we aim to strengthen our portfolio of compelling content, replicating the success of our revenue generating, award-winning experiences including Apollo 11 VR and Titanic VR, whilst also helping others to create content for their own lessons. 

“Given the anticipated high volume of activity and steady stream of news ahead, I am confident that we will deliver value to shareholders.”

Richard Cooper, Non-Executive Chairman, said, “The board is delighted that investors have been so supportive of our IPO and the presentations made by the management team over the last few weeks. We look forward to having a regular dialogue with these shareholders over the coming years as the business seeks to rapidly develop its VR education offering.” 

Prior to today’s IPO, Immersive VR Education had successfully raised €1.3m from a number of investors, including Suir Valley Ventures, Kernel Capital Venture Funds and Enterprise Ireland.  The company currently has 21 full time employees based in its Waterford offices in a variety of roles including animators, artists, researchers, marketing and developers, inclusive of management.