VR company’s flotation buoyed up by Titanic experience

Virtual reality technology company VR Education said revenue rose 15 per cent in 2018 as the company posted its first results since listing on the stock exchange.

Revenue rose to €716,000 in 2018, up from €624,000 in 2017, with the company holding the commercial release of its Engage education platform in December.

The company, which raised £6 million when it held its IPO in March 2018, said its pretax loss of €4.9 million for 2018 was in line with management expectations. The figure included a non-cash fair value loss on derivative financial liabilities of €2.6 million, VR Education said.

Loss per share was 3 cent. Net cash at the end of the year was €3.5 million.

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The Waterford-based firm released its Titanic VR experience on Playstation during the year, with the title also available for PC, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality. The year also saw the company release its Apollo 11 HD experience on PC, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality.

Operational progress

David Whelan, chief executive of VR Education, said the group had made substantial operational progress since its admission to the stock market, and this was in line with its strategy outlined at the time of the IPO.

Davy said revenue figures were above its expectations, and the results pointed towards a positive year ahead. “We believe 2019 is building to be a strong year with the commercial release of Engage and a broadening base of retail experiences,” analysts wrote in a note.

VR Education is set to make its Apollo 11 VR educational experience part of the launch collection for Oculus Go, Oculus’s all-in-one VR headset.

The company also completed the 1943 Berlin Blitz experience, a joint project with the BBC, during 2018 and was nominated for a VR award at the Venice Film Festival in September 2018.

Strategic hires

The company has also made strategic hires during the year, strengthening its management team with the appointment of a new chief technology officer, and Pixar Animation Studios' Loren Carpenter coming on board as an adviser.

The company will publish its next VR experience, Raid on the Ruhr, in the first half of 2019.

"The successful IPO and fundraise has been followed by a series of significant product launches; and so, a year on from the listing, the group has both launched its Engage platform in commercial form and has broadened its retail experiences beyond Apollo 11 VR into Titanic VR and 1943 Berlin Blitz," said Richard Cooper, chairman of VR Education. "The group is therefore well placed to capitalise on these in 2019 and beyond."