Virti's Year in Review: Our best moments of 2021
What a year 2021 has been! We can hardly believe how much has happened at Virti over the past 12 months - from concluding our biggest funding round to date to launching several exciting new products, collaborating with new partners and welcoming new team members.
What a year 2021 has been! We can hardly believe how much has happened at Virti over the past 12 months - from concluding our biggest funding round to date to launching several exciting new products, collaborating with new partners and welcoming new team members.
2022 looks set to be even bigger and better as we continue our mission to improve human performance on a global scale. But now, take a moment to join us in reflecting on and celebrating everything we’ve achieved together in 2021.
Virti’s 2021 highlights 💡
- The year got off to a fantastic start as we joined Tech Nation’s flagship Upscale programme, which helps fast-growing companies as they scale.
- In March, we were thrilled to be named as one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2021.
- Working alongside wellbeing coach Sarah Furness, we launched the Virti Well Be It programme, aimed at helping people learn key mindfulness skills fast.
- A super exciting announcement came in June as we raised $10m in Series A funding, led by IQ Capital and joined by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to further our mission to improve access to VR training across the globe.
- We were honoured to be selected to join the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) programme, which scales the top evidence-based health solutions throughout the NHS.
- Our automated onboarding system, Virti Onboarding 1.0, was launched in October to help organisations get set-up on the Virti platform in less than 30 minutes.
- Our brilliant new Web Player feature now allows learners to access our interactive video and Virtual Human products on their desktops.
- To help organisations collect more intuitive employee feedback and improve staff wellbeing, we also launched our AI-powered feedback suite.
- In November, we exhibited at the Future Surgery Show at the ExCeL London, where we demonstrate our surgical simulations to hundreds of engaged visitors.
- We also hosted our first ever game design workshop at which members of the Virti team came together to share ideas and develop new design features to be implemented across the Virti platform.
- The whole company enjoyed four Jam weeks, during which we spent our time developing personal and group passion projects that aligned with our company goals and values.
Partnerships and collaborations 🤝
- Collaborating with Somerset NHS Foundation Trust led to the introduction of VR training to enhance learning for junior doctors and medical students and improve patient interactions.
- We were thrilled to get the chance to work with Stapleton Cricket Club, who are currently using Virti to deliver off-season VR cricket training to club members. BBC Radio visited the club to interview players and coaches about their experiences with the Virti platform.
- Motivated by the HGV driver crisis, we partnered with the EasyAs HGV driver training providers to develop simulations that could be used to accelerate the accreditation process.
- We continued our work with the GROW Nursing programme at Indiana Wesleyan University, giving over 200 students the opportunity to continue their practical nursing training despite the pandemic limiting their access to hospitals.
- We also continued to work with Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre on projects including mindfulness and resilience training and COVID surge response training for healthcare staff.
- It’s been a pleasure to collaborate with the University of San Diego who have been innovative and amazing with our platform to supercharge their training sessions.
- We’ve just launched an early-stage partnership with Premium Service Brands, which will involve the Virti platform being used to train franchise holders in sales techniques.
Growing the Virti team 🌱
It’s been a year of exponential growth at Virti. We’ve more than doubled the size of our team, and continue to welcome new, best-in-class talent to join in our mission of improving human performance around the world.
In particular, we’ve welcomed some fantastic additions to our C-suite, including our COO & CFO Mark Ashworth and our CRO Kurt Kratchman.
Want to find out more about Virti’s people? Head over to our blog.
Awards and recognition 🏆
- We were honoured to be included in a number of prestigious rankings, including:
- Forbes’ 10 examples of healthcare innovation in the face of Covid.
- TechRound’s Top Tech for Good and Top 100 innovative companies.
- The 2021 Startups 100 List.
- At Tech Spark UK’s 2021 SPARKies awards, we won Best Use of VR/AR.
- The EdTechX Impact Award was also scooped up by the Virti team.
- And we were announced as finalists for the Best Tech Company award at Bristol Live’s annual Business Awards.
Virti in the press 📰
- TechCrunch covered the exclusive news of our $10m Series A funding raise.
- In Maddyness, Virti CEO Dr Alex Young spoke about retaining culture as a fast-growth startup and using XR to achieve your business goals.
- Alex was also featured in Startups’ successful entrepreneurs stories.
- The EdTech Podcast spoke to Alex about how VR training is helping frontline workers during the pandemic.
- In Forbes, Alex discussed the future of skills training, and in Metro he shared his views on the importance of properly implementing flexible working.
- Virti COO & CFO Mark Ashworth shared the 6 questions you should ask to assess company culture in Silicon Republic and in Business Leader, Alex explained how employee feedback can be used to stop workplace culture turning toxic.
- Alex discussed how XR can help firms to recover post-Covid in XR Today, explored the role of VR in workplace wellbeing in AR post, and shared why he pays his team to pursue their passion projects in HR Director.
- The Healthtech Podcast also invited Alex along to share the story of Virti so far with their listeners.
All that’s left is to say a huge thank you to all of our amazing team members, partners and customers around the world for your support during the past 12 months. Bring on 2022!
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