VIRTALIS is celebrating its first birthday with an investment by venture capitalists, the North West Equity Fund.

David Cockburn-Price, MD of the specialist virtual reality (VR) providers, explained: ”Only a year ago, VR was perceived to be a risky area, so we did our Buy-In Management Buy-Out without external funding.  Even though it has been a great year, with a turnover double the size of previous year and new staff being taken on board, we realised in November that our expansion plans couldn’t be realised without more funding.”

Andy Rigby, head of the North West Equity Fund, commented: “My colleague, Richard Lewis, brought Virtalis to our attention and we agreed with the management’s view that the firm has so many untapped applications and sectors.  We want to see them plucking the lowest hanging fruit first, such as engineering design where the use of these techniques has reduced companies’ dependence on physical prototypes and generated spectacular returns on investment.  Our fund will help them focus on their chosen spheres and allow them to create products, develop markets and increase their revenue stream.  This technology, of which they are the undisputed leaders, doesn’t just impress technical people, but also the rest of us too.”

The Virtalis management team is buzzing with ideas on ways to capitalise on their significant bank of intellectual property and apply it to target sectors more deeply and effectively.  There will be a significant investment in the latest VR hardware, which will improve product and application development.  It will also enable more organisations to experience the power of VR in the Company’s Manchester demonstration suite, at strategic partners’ offices and at their own premises.  Virtalis expects to almost double its development and sales teams.