Virtual reality (VR) company Virtalis are probably best known for providing high-quality VR hardware and software to Universities such as University of Sheffield and Beuth University in Berlin. Now the firm has been acquired by Alpina Partners, an independent investment firm.
The founders of Virtalis, David Cockburn-Price and Andrew Connell will be staying on with the company as directors. Also on the board of directors will be Steve Carpenter and Glyn Read, with Christian von Stengel also joining them.
Dr Florian Strehle, a partner at ALPINA, commented on the latest addition to the investment firm’s portfolio: “We are excited to be supporting the next phase of Virtalis’ worldwide growth strategy. Virtalis has launched innovative software like Visionary Render, VR4CAD and GeoVisionary in recent years, to work with its well-known ActiveWorks VR display systems, and this is where we see the growth potential. We will work with the Virtalis management team to further develop the Company as a leading player in the global enterprise VR software market by leveraging our network and expertise.”
Andrew Connell, Technical Director, said: “My entire career has been spent nurturing Virtalis and its predecessor entities as the fledgling field of VR has moved from research demonstrator programmes within Universities to the compelling real-world, commercial toolkit it is today. Back in the 90s, many commentators said VR was dead – it has been gratifying to prove them wrong as Virtalis has brought VR solutions to industries as diverse as Engineering, Security, Academia, Asset Management and GeoScience. With the help of ALPINA, we aim to rapidly develop our technology to reach a larger global user base.”
Managing Director David Cockburn-Price added: “ALPINA is an experienced growth investor which will help us to ensure the sustainable development of Virtalis, especially with reference to our direct and indirect sales channels. We will become part of a larger group of innovative software businesses within ALPINA’s investment portfolio, exploiting synergies on many different levels.”
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via Mint VR