Each year, The Venture Reality Fund releases a VR industry report that highlights the most important companies in the field. As noted by VRFocus, this year they included 550+ companies with the top revenue in the VR industry - including IrisVR!

VR for enterprise is here to stay

One thing that’s clear from The VR Fund’s report is that the enterprise sector is one of the main drivers in increasing the adoption of VR.

An entire portion of the infographic is devoted to companies serving the enterprise, from established industry leaders to early-stage startups. Oculus, the Facebook-owned VR company that recently announced a new version of their enterprise-focused Oculus for Business platform, is included in the group; other big-name logos featured alongside them include Microsoft, Google, and Walmart (who are seeing a 10-15% performance improvement in VR-trained employees). 

We’re excited to see IrisVR included in the infographic alongside other VR startups like STRIVR, who provide the training platform Walmart has seen such success with. We’ve always been confident that the future of virtual reality can be found in the workplace - whether that means in an office or on a construction job site - so it’s great to see this sector continue to grow.

VR is popular in a wide variety of enterprise contexts - such as construction and the oil & gas industry.

The headset market continues to expand and diversify

The VR Fund’s report also confirms that the market for VR headsets has expanded and diversified enormously in 2019 - and that it shows no sign of slowing down. With VR industry leaders like Valve diving deeper into this space, consumers and professionals have access to more and more headsets, each with different strengths and weaknesses.

As VRFocus reports, the enterprise sector is seeing a number of important developments in terms of headsets - the Varjo VR-1, HP Reverb Pro Edition, and HTC Vive Pro Eye are just a few of the headsets coming out that are aimed specifically at enterprise use.

The release of Facebook’s standalone, immersive VR headset, the Oculus Quest, is an important moment for the VR industry. Photo courtesy of Oculus/Facebook.

Over $500 million has been invested into VR and AR since the beginning of 2019

As pointed out by VRFocus, one interesting aspect of The VR Fund’s report is the revelation that over $500 million has been invested into VR and AR companies since the beginning of 2019.

It’s worth noting that a significant portion of that number was a single investment - NTT Docomo’s funding of Magic Leap. Still, it’s an important moment for VR, and the investment capital landscape is showing their commitment to this emerging technology.

The Magic Leap One headset by Magic Leap. NTT Docomo’s funding of Magic Leap was one of the largest VR/AR investments of 2019. Photo courtesy of Time Magazine.

With a growing presence in the enterprise market and a bigger headset market than ever before, VR is having a huge 2019.

Interested in learning more about the state of the industry? This infographic contains all the information you need on the most important VR headsets arriving in 2019: