While virtual reality has a reputation for leaving some promises unfulfilled, it has delivered on many fronts. From gaming to staff training to outpatient care, virtual reality is indeed making a great impact.
According to recent reports, it was estimated that almost 40 million individuals will make use of virtual reality at least once per month this year. Additionally, the population of active VR users globally is predicted to reach as high as 171 million.
It is still popularly considered to be the technology of the gaming niche, but it also offers immense potential in non-gaming entertainment, technology, employee development, medical training, retail, and e-commerce.
Below we will discuss 35 VR companies that are making waves in the VR industry.
- Stage11
Niche: GamingLocation: RemoteAbout the company: ‘Live performance’ has never been better with the tools of Stage11. As a top VR company, Stage11’s goal is to reinvent how music artists are interacting with their fans.
- Supernatural
Niche: ExerciseLocation: Los AngelesAbout the company: Supernatural is offering users a special home workout program that features a combination of complete-body exercises, professional coaches, and exciting experiences within just one platform.
- Vicarious Surgical
Niche: HealthtechLocation: Waltham, MassachusettsAbout the company: Vicarious Surgical is revolutionizing surgical capabilities and technology with the aim of providing patients with satisfactory results and less invasiveness or risk during abdominal procedures.
- Project Archer
Niche: RetailLocation: Redmond, WashingtonAbout the company: Project Archer is an AR studio that focuses on the activation of AR applications in the retail sector.
- Virtualitics
Niche: Big data location: Pasadena, CaliforniaAbout the company: The organization offers businesses a swiftly-deployable suite of AI-enabled products that analyze and fuses data sources to develop predictive models and make data understandable and visible to every user.
- Talespin
Niche: Job training location: Culver City, California about the company: The company provides access to content creation tools, a skills insight platform, and immersive learning content in equal parts. It exploits the capability of XR to fast-track learning and skills development in workplaces.
- Applied VR
Niche: HealthtechLocation: Los AngelesAbout the company: This platform was built upon 30 years of academic research, trying to find the most effective methods of integrating VR into the healthcare space. More than 30,000 patients have used this groundbreaking tech to manage acute pain via therapeutic virtual experiences, bringing about better results for patients.
- Phaser Lock Interactive
Niche: GamingLocation: AustinAbout the company: Phaser Lock generates cinematic experiences and video games to be used on different virtual reality platforms, combining animation with alluring stories to produce brand new worlds.
- Lucid Sight
Niche: GamingLocation: Santa Monica, CaliforniaAbout the company: This VR company has produced a plethora of virtual reality games that cut through a collection of titles, such as Z-Strike, Crypto Space Commander, and MLB Champions.
- Owlchemy Labs
Niche: GamingLocation: AustinAbout the company: Owlchemy Labs is one of the best VR studios in Austin, laying emphasis on delight and design all across its products to deliver enthralling user experiences.
- Wevr
Niche: Digital MediaLocation: Venice, CaliforniaAbout the company: Wevr is a VR company that has actively contributed to the expansion of virtual reality capabilities for a long time now. The studio produces cinematic experiences that immerse the user on their preferred platform.
- Unity Technologies
Niche: 3D DevelopmentLocation: San Francisco about the company: In the last couple of years, Unity Technologies has found favor with automakers, who utilize its VR imaging as a prototyping tool. Filmmakers also use it to combine different production tasks. Nonetheless, the company still has a strong footing in the gaming industry.
- Nuvia Inc.
Niche: Data Center SemiconductorLocation: Santa Clara, California about the company: With the rise in data processing and the need for additional computing power, there must be silicon developments that can keep up. This is exactly where Nuvia comes to play. The VR startup firm is working on a range of silicon-based processing equipment that will be able to manage the energy efficiency and performance needs of the modern intensive global computing grid.
- Within
Niche: FilmmakingLocation: Los AngelesAbout the company: Following its launching in 2014, the company has supervised a remarkable range of music, experimental, horror, and short animated films, as well as a number of outstanding documentary collaborations with the Cable News Network – CNN, The New York Times, and some other media firms.
- LiveLike
Niche: Sports, MediaLocation: NYCAbout the company: Through its virtual reality platform, LiveLike has been able to present the FIFA World Cup, the Super Bowl, and other marquee matchups. The company has David Stern, former NBA commissioner, as one of its investors.
- Subvrsive
Niche: Advertising, MarketingLocation: AustinAbout the company: Subvrsive is a marketing studio that works with AR, VR, and 360-degree video to develop experiences and videos for the likes of Walmart, MTV, Google, and Amazon. The studio also provides products that allow retailers to re-create their presence in 3D online as well as allowing brands to develop their own augmented reality content directly to the internet.
- Virtuix
Niche: GamingLocation: AustinAbout the company: Virtuix has successfully launched the Omni, which is a workaround 360-degree treadmill that allows gamers to run through virtual grounds while actually remaining put in the real one.
- Oculus
Niche: Consumer Electronics, Video GamesLocation: Menlo Park, CaliforniaAbout the company: Talking about virtual reality in 2009 must begin with Oculus, which was famously acquired by Facebook for $2 billion back in 2014. This ignited the 2nd major firestorm of virtual reality hype. The Oculus Rift Headset was launched in 2016.
- Limbix
Niche: Outpatient Care, Health CareLocation: Palo Alto, CaliforniaAbout the company: Limbix is known to be one of the forerunners in VR patient care, providing a wireless and internet-free system that features portals designed for exposure therapy, anxiety management (like single-object-oriented focus meditation and breathing exercises) etc.
- Survios
Niche: GamingLocation: Torrance, CaliforniaAbout the company: Survios is the virtual reality brain behind Raw Data and Creed: Rise to Glory. The platform also runs its own brick-and-mortar arcade in California, which welcomes gamers to come together and enjoy a myriad of games that include Survios and several others.
- Bigscreen
Niche: Virtual Reality, SoftwareLocation: Berkeley, CaliforniaAbout the company: About 77% of VR users demand additional social engagement from virtual reality. By looking to satisfy this want, Bigscreen allows users to watch sports and movies, and collaborate for business or even hang out together in any of 20+ virtual settings.
- Matterport
Niche: Travel and Hospitality, Real EstateLocation: Sunnyvale, CaliforniaAbout the company: Matterport is a VR company that adopts a rather advanced approach in 3D imaging tours in residential property; incorporating computer vision to even “read” sophisticated layouts. After mapping a space, users can select a VR tour that is truer-to-life and extremely immersive than a computer stream.
- Decorilla
Niche: Home Decor, Interior DesignLocation: NYCAbout the company: Decorilla, just like Matterport, utilizes the 3D room modeling concept; except that in this case, it is applied to home decor.
- Talespin
Niche: Workforce Development, Corporate TrainingLocation: Culver City, CaliforniaAbout the company: The newest technology from Talespin recreates one of the most ordinary settings one can imagine: the office. The software allocates managers and employees into performance reviews, virtual sales cold calls, and other assiduous on-the-job cases, so that they are able to manage them more skillfully.
- WEVR
Niche: Entertainment, MediaLocation: Venice, CaliforniaAbout the company: For almost 10 years, WEVR has been demonstrating that VR goes beyond leisure, especially gaming. The company uses VR as entertainment to execute traditional film storytelling.
- Framestore
Niche: Film, MediaLocation: London, EnglandAbout the company: Framestore is popular for its Oscar-winning visual effects in TV shows and movies such as Black Mirror, Spider-Man: Far from Home, and others. The company replicates the same success for VR as well, developing the Fantastic Beasts experience for Google’s Daydream headset and constructing a VR tour of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
- Dreamscape
Niche: EntertainmentLocation: Santa Monica, CaliforniaAbout the company: The company is known for its Dreamscape room in Los Angeles which features 3 free-roam virtual-reality adventures. You can expect a higher-than-average sense of interactivity as everyone present in the room will be showing up as an avatar.
- The VOID
Niche: EntertainmentLocation: Lindon, UtahAbout the company: The VOID is a VR company that develops and runs virtual entertainment centers with a major focus on the exploration of immersive virtual dimensions and places with friends.
- Black Box VR
Niche: FitnessLocation: Boise, IdahoAbout the company: This company contributes to the growth of fitness gaming, adding shops within gyms and making use of VR missions to simultaneously encourage and distract gym-goers when doing high-intensity cardio reps and hardcore resistance training.
- 8i
Niche: SoftwareLocation: Los AngelesAbout the company: 8i studio makes use of volumetric 3D image capture to produce preposterously lifelike hologram representations of humans, which can be integrated into augmented, mixed, or virtual reality settings.
- Surgical Theater
Niche: Training, Health CareLocation: Gates Mills, OhioAbout the company: Surgical Theater is a company that offers virtual training opportunities for doctors to practice ultra-complex neurosurgical procedures. Surgical Theater is part of a growing network of organizations that leverage VR’s potential for both practice/training and healthcare.
- Meow Wolf
Niche: Entertainment, EventsLocation: Santa Fe, New MexicoAbout the company: Meow Wolf is an arts and entertainment firm that was founded in 2008. The company produces large-scale immersive art installations, in addition to music videos, streaming content, etc.
- VironIT
Niche: SoftwareLocation: San FranciscoAbout the company: VironIT is a tech company that focuses on business, web-based, and mobile software applications, in addition to maintenance, support, and integration of the software systems. It offers VR services including MR development, VR app development, and 3D modeling.
- Next/Now
Niche: Virtual realityLocation: ChicagoAbout the company: This is a design studio that is involved in the design of AR and VR experiences, trade shows, fairs, animations, apps, and festivals. Its specialty is in gesture and motion digital experiences, as well as projection mapping, to transform spaces into virtual 3D surfaces.
- CemtrexLabs
Niche: virtual reality designLocation: Brooklyn, New YorkAbout the company: Launched in 2017, CemtrexLabs has its presence in Pune and New York. The company focuses on VR and web design and development, with prototyping as well. Their core services include Quazar, WorkbenchVR, VR prototyping, and Richemont’s Arcadium.
Final Thoughts
In this article, we have reviewed the top virtual reality companies any person interested in VR should know. Most of these companies are tech giants that invest in other services and technologies but primarily focus on augmented reality and virtual reality. Keep in mind that a good number of these top VR companies are startups making big waves in their respective industries.