Engage XR reports rise in revenues despite ‘turbulence’ in tech sector

Engage VR platform

Caoimhe Gordon

Virtual reality technology company Engage XR saw sales grow last year as the number of customer using its metaverse platform continued to rise.

Group revenues were up 62pc to €3.9m for the 12 months ended December 31.

This was driven by demand for the company’s Engage platform, with sales up 86pc to €3.3m.

The group’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) loss widened across the year to €5.8m, compared to €2.8m a year earlier.

The group attributed this to an increase in headcount.

Following the tech downturn in the second half of 2022, the company said it reduced staff numbers, with payroll costs down by a quarter as a result.

Overall, staff costs rose to €7m last year.

December 2022 was the company’s most successful month to date, with €600,000 worth of deals closed.

Engage XR also revealed that 58pc of revenue in the first three months of this year has come from North America following the introduction of a sales team in the region.

Overall, sales figures for the first three months of 2023 are 40pc higher than the same period last year.

The group also launched Engage Link last November.

This is an update to its communications platform which allows clients to create a space online to communicate directly with each other, as well as with customers, suppliers and employees.

The company said these virtual spaces are similar to physical locations that a business may have in a city.

At the end of 2022, Engage XR had more than 190 enterprise and education clients. This has now risen to over 200.

The company is now working with businesses, such as Pfizer, HSBC, Kia and Lenovo.

Engage will now feature on Lenovo’s all in one VR headset, which is set to be released in the second half of this year.

“2022 was an extremely busy year with many positives and most metrics going in the right direction despite turbulence hitting the global tech sector during the second half of the year,” chief executive David Whelan said.

"This had a consequential impact on the conversion of our pipeline of commercial opportunities.”