Engage XR saw sales rise steadily in the first half of the year as the virtual reality company’s client list continued to grow.

Group revenues were up 18pc to €2.1m in the six months to June 30. More than half of sales in the period derived from North America.

Engage XR attributed this growth to the deployment of a dedicated sales team in the US market halfway through last year.

The rise in sales was also driven by demand for the company’s Engage software platform which is used to create, share and deliver virtual reality content.

Engage revenues hit €1.9m, an increase of 30pc from the corresponding period last year. This represented 91pc of total sales.

Engage XR now has more than 220 active enterprise and education clients, having added over 30 new clients in the first half of 2023. It currently works with Pfizer, HSBC and Kia.

“We have added more than 30 new customers, including two leading global banks, as well as seeing an uptick in activity and spend from our existing users,” chief executive David Whelan said.

The business also hosted a virtual “Eat, Sleep, VR, Repeat” concert on its platform, which saw Fatboy Slim perform for users in March this year.

“The very well-received Fatboy Slim concert held in Engage in March showcased the innovation and flexibility of the platform, with the potential to open up new revenue streams,” Mr Whelan said.

Engage will feature on Lenovo’s all-in-one VR headset, which launched in June.

The company expects to see the benefits of the hardware partnership in the final quarter of this year. Last month, the group also signed an education licence deal with a US state.

This pilot programme is valued at more than €300,000.

“The first half of 2023 has demonstrated our continued progress as more companies embrace the new world of virtual communications, such as extended reality (XR)/spatial computing and the Metaverse,” Mr Whelan said.

He pointed to Apple’s plan to launch its Vision Pro headset, as well as Meta’s Quest 3 release later this year.

Despite “considerable” headwinds, Mr Whelan said the business expects to continue to grow its customer base in the second half of the year

Reporting On: www.independent.ie