Not too long ago, the concept of extended reality in business was little more than a gimmick. The idea seemed better suited to a scifi movie than a corporate setting, and so, it is little surprise that it was slow to gain traction. But that is changing very fast. The industry is new but growing. According to Forbes, annual spending on Extended Reality (XR) is expected to grow by more than 100 per cent each year over the next five years. It is blending the real world with a virtual world to create an immersive experience for the user. It is unlocking new business value through an improved customer journey, optimized employee performance, and creating new content and services. Also, XR technology has already started to revolutionize teaching in the few classrooms that have begun to implement the technology. It is currently the most affordable since many schools already have access to the required smart devices. Also, most students are already familiar with the technology and can learn how to use it quickly. It can also replace the need for physical supplies, making lessons cheaper for schools and more environmentally friendly.

VR2ality's EduXR is a learning platform that uses AR and VR technology to visualize content. The objective is to create valuable, immersive and curriculum aligned experiences for K-12 and Higher Education. EduXR is a tool that can help teachers to teach topics that are challenging for students to visualize. All the content is curated by teachers and professors taking continual feedback from students. VR2ality's focus has always been the production pipeline which allows it to create valuable experiences for various industries such as manufacturing, medical, marketing, training, real estate and more. "We have always been very keen on exploring the field of education. This has allowed us to create our first product called EduXR within which we are creating immersive and interactive content that is curriculum aligned. We are working with teachers of multiple subject matter expertise to create a large content library for K-12. This content will be deployed on tablets for an AR experience and through labs with-in schools to experience VR. We are very excited about EduXR as we put in a lot of R&D to address the pain points and challenges faced by the teachers and students. Also in the future, we want to explore the gaming industry," says Shardul Gangal, CEO, VR2ality.

The Foundation
Shardul Gangal is a BSc. (Hons) in Sound Engineering and Technology graduated from Birmingham City University, England. His first encounter with VR was in a gaming arcade in Birmingham where developed interest in the technology and started brainstorming ideas on how to bring a larger context to this technology. While in the final year of university and after making up his mind on pursuing a career in XR technology he contacted a friend in India. Santosh Kumar who has 18-year experience in IT solutions and infrastructure in education co-founded VR2ality Infotec along with Shardul. With the help of a few other friends who were students are that the time, they started acquiring knowledge in XR production pipelines. And this marked the beginning of VR2ality.

The first year of operations was mostly spent on self-learning all the skills that are required to create effective and valuable XR experiences. Post meticulous R&D later, the team started pitching some of their demos to various industries and it was not until late 2018 that their first clients started rolling in. This was also the time when the idea for EduXR was conceived. Along the way, it received a couple of local awards for research in immersive education technology. "Right now EduXR is adopted by a few schools and is still in a testing phase. We are expecting to launch at the beginning of the 2020 academic year," he shares.

As a full-service Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality content start-up that creates powerful experiences for the enterprise that adds value to processes under any vertical; the company's solutions are produced at AAA console-quality for best visualization. "We believe that XR can be used under any vertical for almost all industries. Visualization, training, marketing, troubleshooting, entertainment, wellness and

a lot more areas can be elevated by the use of XR. Any given project is approached like a video game. It has to have a low point, a buildup and a high point. A solid flow keeps the user engaged throughout the experience. Our main focus is always reverse engineering the experience from the user POV. At VR2ality, we provide our services to various industries yet the underlying idea is the same," mentions Shardul.

Sailing against the Wind
As XR technology caters to so many different industries, each one poses its own set of challenges. By and large, lack of awareness poses to be a major drawback. Many of the clients have no clear picture of the usage of AR/VR/MR due to which they fail to understand the benefits and the results that it could bring to their businesses. VR2ality seizes the opportunity here by starting from the ground up to build a solid solution by brainstorming together. It takes a good amount of time in the pitching process and let the work speak for itself. Sharing his experience on this, Shardul asserts, "When we ventured into this space back in 2017 on a national scale there was not much of a conversation about XR. It is imperative to start with some solid demos that showcase the work. Also, with the technology changing and upgrading ever so often we have always tried to adapt and improve our production pipelines to stay ahead of the competition."


Santosh Kumar, Operations Director, Shardul Gangal, CEO & Jack Johny, CTO

The company delivers niche expertise that counts as its silver lining. The team is open to collaborating with other XR companies within the country to service clients. "We have already done some collaborative work before and the results have been great. There is a lot more scope for the market to grow in all industries," he avers. VR2ality houses a competent team of highly capable programmers, designers and artists who leave no stone unturned to develop world-class solutions. The entire development team consists of avid gamers who are passionate about immersion. Together, they strive to bring in that level of immersion to pro applications not just through graphics but by understanding the end-user and what it takes to draw them in. "Our work culture is very conducive to collaboration and problem-solving. We are very proud of the quality of work we can consistently produce due to it. We are always in tune with the requirements of our clients. Under-standing their needs and their customers has always led to superior experiences," he adds. "We are just a bunch of people from different walks of life and ideologies coming together to create experiences that go beyond individual imagination," further adds Santosh Kumar, Operations Director.

As a full-service virtual reality and augmented reality content start-up, vr2ality creates powerful experiences for the enterprise that adds value to processes under any vertical

The Success Saga
With a humble beginning, VR2ality has come a long way, over the years. The journey began with a small team of 4 and today the company houses a team of 15+ members across various development-driven departments. "We have channelized a lot of efforts in developing the content for EduXR and have a dedicated team for that. We have a steady inflow of projects from various industries that keeps our team on their toes and allows us to constantly learn and improve our pipelines. We started up in Pune and are proud to have set up operations in Dubai recently," he says.

"We are constantly striving to develop our brand and scale up operations steadily. We have eyes set on acquiring clients from various sectors and also pitch to international markets. We are also getting a great response or EduXR and will scaling up operations for it too," concludes Shardul Gangal.

”Vr2ality houses a competent team of highly capable programmers, designers and artists who leave no stone unturned to develop world-class solutions”

Shardul Gangal, CEO
"In a start-up, initially everyone has to assume all roles. Apart from heading sales, marketing, operations and HR, I have been actively involved in product flow-through, design and UX for almost all our projects so far. I enjoy working closely with all my team members and as we grow everyone gets in tune with the culture of the company. We have flexible timings that allow our team to have a life outside of work. This has boosted productivity by a lot as I have never had to enforce timings. Fortunately, all projects we take up are unique where we have to brainstorm new ideas for each solution. The growth of our members and new skills that we pick up is phenomenal. I have always lead with empathy. Understanding the issues faced by the team and solving them is one of my favourite tasks. Inculcating the same for the team is a very important part of the culture."

Jack Johny, CTO
"As the Technology Head, I oversee all the XR solutions we create. I also lead the EduXR team. One of my major responsibilities is the conduct a thorough requirement analysis either from the clients we create custom content for, or creating education modules for schools and colleges. After which we brainstorm ideas and curate the solution as a team. I assign tasks to the team and lead the development. Furthermore, I am also responsible for creating training modules for recruits and end users. I lead the teams in very hands on manner. We are a close knit group and are always assisting each other during any issues that may arise. The culture is such where everyone knows their roles and conducts themselves accordingly. Very little to none intervention is required."