Extended Reality (XR) software development firm Luminous XR has raised a further £1m from the North East Venture Fund (NEVF), supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Mercia Ventures.
The latest investment follows the company’s success in winning a seven-figure contract from a major Middle East oil provider. It will help the business to deliver the project and target other overseas markets, in particular in the US.
Luminous XR’s platform enables developers to create metaverse-style training programmes and simulate real-life scenarios to create authentic training experiences. It is particularly popular with clients in the energy, manufacturing and industrial sectors.
Its popular PORTAL learning management system has become an essential tool for organisations looking to manage immersive training, offering an Intuitive Learning Management System which brings the trainer and trainees together to access XR training scenarios, as well as access to in-depth training analytics to enhance learning and development.
The company has also developed a virtual reality content authoring tool, FLOW, which will launch in late summer. This will give creators, developers and enterprise customers an efficient way to create immersive virtual reality training content without the need to write code, cutting the amount of time traditionally needed.
An award winning software development firm, Luminous XR was founded in 2006 as a 3D-mapping specialist. Luminous XR moved into virtual reality ten years later. More recently, the firm has expanded its staff by bringing on 10 new employees and moving to a large office space in Newcastle.
Mercia first backed the company in 2017 and has provided successive rounds of investment from its own funds and from the NEVF to enable it to develop its products and grow the business. The latest funding brings the total raised to date to £3.55m.
Luminous XR now employs 30 staff. In addition to its Newcastle headquarters, it also has an office in Bahrain and has recently established a presence in Texas, USA.
Ben Bennett, CEO of Luminous XR, said: “Luminous is used by the biggest brands in the industrial and manufacturing sectors who have the highest training standards. Our XR platform is paving the way for the adoption of Extended Reality training, providing a scalable, secure solution with many advanced features. The current funding round will now allow us to grow our sales and marketing as we expand globally.”
