Avantis grows as demand for VR in US Schools increases

With the virtual-reality headsets from Avantis, students can travel back to the trenches of World War I or even into outer space. To oversee the Gloucester-based firm’s fastest-growing US market, real-world sales teams still visit schools and talk to teachers in all states.

Huw Williams is the CEO of a British company that specializes in education technology. He believes two elements are necessary for the company to be successful in the US. First, “it must feel like an American-made product and its marketing should look American”. The company, for example, ensures that the VR lessons it offers are tailored to the different requirements of each state’s curriculum.

There are over 100,000 schools in the US. The second part is to “learn the routes to the market and work with people who have the relationships”. Since 2007, the company has produced different hardware and software products for learning and developed contacts through trade shows such as Bett (the global education technology exhibition) held at Excel London.

Avantis initially sold through resellers that worked with school districts. Williams said that since the opening of a US office Chicago in 2022, Avantis has built its own sales team and worked with resellers. LDC, a private equity firm, invested an undisclosed amount in the same financial year. Avantis used this money to pay for the costs of hiring staff and incorporating the company in the US. Williams makes a round-trip of 8,000 miles to Chicago to work with a team of 30 people Avantis has now in the United States.

LDC has replaced Key Capital Partners (another private equity firm) that invested PS4.25million in Avantis by 2020. Before then, Avantis was self-funded. Williams, who worked for Avantis from 2013 onwards, took over as CEO last year. Nic Tuson remained as a non executive director. According to the company, children and teachers feel a visceral reaction when they put on the headsets for first time.

Sales are expected to grow by 50% this year from PS23 million, which was the previous forecast. The US is expected to be the fastest-growing market. Avantis has 90 countries in which it sells, but only 10% of its revenue is generated by the UK. Spain and Italy, among other European countries, have invested in school technology. This has boosted sales on those markets. Williams said that in Britain, money hasn’t ring-fenced for technology products in primary and high schools in the last five to 10 years.

In 2017, the company started selling Class VR headsets. They were inspired by a Google program in 2016, which gave one million British schoolchildren the opportunity to try VR. Williams stated that a growing number of classroom and school headteachers also said it was becoming harder to engage their students using traditional teaching methods.

He said, “We wanted them to have a cool piece of technology and we knew VR would cause a visceral reaction when they put on the headset — for both children and teachers.” You can imagine it as a way to go somewhere that you couldn’t in real life, such as inside the body. Teachers come up with creative ways to use the software.

Avantis manufactures its headsets in Asia, and its Gloucester headquarters develops its software and educational content. The teacher controls the headsets centrally from the classroom, so that they can see exactly what the children are doing and watching during the lesson.

The headsets are purchased by the schools and they pay an annual subscription to access the Avantis content and classroom management tool. Avantis helps schools set up and maintain the equipment. Williams said that this way of working allows Avantis to compete with tech giants such as Google.

The school staff is time-poor. “They don’t want go to just one company to get the hardware and software. They also don’t like to have to deal with multiple companies for support,” said he.

Teachers are employed by the company in its content and sales teams because, according to Williams, “teachers will always advocate for other teachers when they see benefits”.

Avantis has begun to explore how artificial intelligence can be integrated into its products. The company is focusing on reducing the time required for teachers by streamlining their tasks, rather than attempting to replace direct contact between students and teachers. Williams said that the company uses AI to create its content. This includes using voice prompts for images.

He said that the scramble for homeschooling children during pandemics has brought Avantis two long-lasting benefits. First, “the education industry realised it had been left out in terms of technology. Once schools returned to session, we had a large amount of pent up demand”. He said that changes in working patterns made it easier for people to run companies on both sides.