After forming about five years ago, a Dallas virtual reality startup has been bought by a firm with a nearly century-long history.
SURVIVR, a VR training platform for first responders, has been acquired by Georgia-based InVeris Training Solutions, a firm providing similar services with its virtual and live-fire weapons training system. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“Joining InVeris enables us to combine the best aspects of both systems, providing an unrivaled solution for existing and future customers,” said SURVIVR CEO Brian Hoang in a statement.
With the mission of providing better de-escalation training for military and first responders during stressful interactions, InVeris said it intends to incorporate SURVIVR’s software into its existing simulated weapons training technology, which can be customized based on a user’s words and actions.
“SURVIVR’s premier virtual reality police training system and patented technology complements recent research and development by InVeris. It will be incorporated into our VR-DT solution to expand future capabilities,” said InVeris CEO Al Weggeman in a statement.
As part of the deal, Hoang will join InVeris as its new director of VR and AR strategy.
Hoang previously told NTX Inno the company was seeing an increased interest in its technology after protests of police shootings began across the country last summer. Even before that, SURVIVR had been steadily gaining traction. The year it launched, the company landed in third place at UT Austin’s DisrupTexas Competition and took the No. 1 spot at UT Dallas’ Big Idea Competition. It started 2020 with a stint at Techstars Austin’s accelerator program, later landing a $230,000 contract from the Department of Defense.
InVeris, which has about 400 employees, was initially formed out of live-fire equipment systems company Caswell International that was acquired by publicly traded British firm Meggitt plc (LSE: MGGT). It later combined it with another portfolio company to form Meggitt Training Systems. Meggitt sold the subsidiary last year to Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm Pine Island Capital Partners in a $146 million deal. This year, now as InVeris Training Solutions, the company named Weggeman, previous president of Block Engineering, as its new CEO.
“All police forces – large and small, urban and rural – need and deserve the most realistic, effective training,” Weggeman said. “This acquisition by InVeris strengthens our product offering to better prepare law enforcement officers for real-life situations in their community.”
