AppliedVR + Unity Centre Of Excellence At HOST + Perception

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AppliedVR raises $29 million in series A funding, Innovation hub HOST to house UK’s first Unity centre of excellence, and Perception teaches students the basics of desktop AR

AppliedVR, the developer of virtual reality-based treatments that address the complexity of chronic pain, has completed a $29 million series A funding round, bringing its total funds raised to $35 million.

Who provided the funding?

The round, which included key investors F-Prime Capital, JAZZ Venture Partners, Sway Ventures, GSR Ventures, Magnetic Ventures and Cedars-Sinai, will fuel the company’s growth as it pursues full regulatory approval for its treatments over the next year.

What does AppliedVR do?

AppliedVR provides virtual reality-based treatments aimed at comprehensively treating chronic pain.

Combining well-established cognitive behavioral therapies with mindfulness exercises, the company’s EaseVRx solution recently became the first virtual reality prescription therapeutic to receive breakthrough device designation from the US Food and Drug Administration for treatment-resistant fibromyalgia and chronic intractable lower back pain.

The company also just released results from its pivotal eight-week randomised clinical trial, finding that the EaseVRx device produced “clinically meaningful” improvement in multiple pain outcomes, and had high participant satisfaction and engagement.

HOST, an innovation hub in Greater Manchester, England, at MediaCityUK, has established the first Unity centre of excellence in the UK.

The Centre of Excellence at HOST will offer extensive in-person support to students, professionals and small businesses with a mission of becoming the ‘Beacon of the North’ for best-in-class technical skills and innovation across industries.

What will the centre of excellence do?

The centre of excellence will upskill learners to prepare for the jobs of tomorrow, promote immersive technology usage across sectors, create highly skilled jobs and establish a central home for the thriving UK video games industry at MediaCityUK.

In line with HOST’s commitment to removing the present barriers affecting diversity and inclusivity, the centre of excellence will launch a comprehensive training programme working with UK universities and industry to deliver professional Certified Unity training.

Additionally, the newly created Unity Cadets will support 150 disadvantaged youngsters from Greater Manchester in Years 10 to 13, to educate and inspire career starts in the gaming and immersive sector.

HOST has also secured a partnership with Gameopolis, the largest video games community and network for developers and publishers across Northwest England. It is also working in partnership with the University of Salford and former Sony PlayStation ‘imagineer’ Dr Maria Stukoff, who is supporting with the development of its esports and XR immersive community.

IN4.0 Group, operator of HOST. “We can now massively accelerate startup growth, business innovation, incentivise the creation of thousands of jobs, and provide fair access to high-quality career starts with ground-breaking initiatives such as the Unity Cadets.”

“Unity is the leader in real-time 3D development so the centre of excellence at HOST will establish MediaCityUK as a global destination for the growth of the gaming and immersive technology industry.”

What does Unity say?

“Immersive technology such as AR and VR is developing and diversifying at breakneck speed, transforming all sectors, including gaming, entertainment, health, education, retail, manufacturing, and more,” says Ryan Peterson, vice president of solutions at Unity.

“The most exciting and long-lasting impact will be our work to create sustainable job opportunities in the local sector and, in tandem, develop professionals with the skills to take on those opportunities.”

Perception, a UK-based computer software company, recently hosted a workshop on developing desktop augmented reality for 26 students from Bangkok Prep International School.

What is Holo-SDK?

The Holographic Software Development Kit (Holo-SDK) uses augmented reality technology to enable users to create their own version of a volumetric display. The software creates the illusion of 3D objects and scenes on any 2D monitor using just a computer, webcam, and 3D glasses (anaglyph glasses).

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