As the metaverse goes more mainstream, workforce skills development will be critical for businesses. And L.A.-based Talespin is working to provide companies with training for the next phase of the internet with software that brings immersive technologies, like VR, to workplace training.
Talespin's clients use its software to train and onboard employees with uses ranging from improving managerial skills to helping insurance agents navigate claim inspections.
Talespin recently received an undisclosed amount of funding from WestRiver Group. The deal also included Talespin's acquisition of a learning platform from Singularity Group, in which WestRiver Group has a stake.
The platform Talespin acquired, Pioneer Adaptive Learning, enables the development of immersive learning experiences that adapt to employees in real-time. This adaptive feature is a new capability for Talespin that it’s “excited” to research and develop, co-founder and CEO Kyle Jackson told L.A. Inno.
Foundation
When Jackson and Stephen Fromkin were working in the media technology industry in the early 2000s, they witnessed the tech shift from analog to digital. They then saw a similar shift in the way content was distributed with the extended reality (XR) wave that started around 2012.
XR is a group of immersive technologies that includes virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality.
The duo began to investigate how these shifts could affect companies, and how the foundation of this new tech infrastructure could be used to provide virtual training for employees.
So, they created Talespin in 2015.
“We found that simulations and immersions were going to empower and prepare people better, and allow them to acquire and retain knowledge faster than traditional ways of training,” Jackson said.
Funding
To date, Talespin has received close to $41M in total over five rounds, according to Crunchbase.
The recent funding from WestRiver Group comes after previous investments from VC firms and entities including SEEK Investments and Accenture Ventures.
Accenture Ventures is the investment arm of the global IT services and consulting company. In February, the firm invested an undisclosed amount in Talespin as part of its $20 million Series C round.
Recovering from 'Firing Barry'
In 2019, a Talespin VR proof-of-concept, with the intention of teaching HR employees how to fire an employee, with the goal of doing it sensitively, caught some flak, according to news reports. Barry was an AI character created by Talespin that helped companies practice how to fire someone via VR. Barry would sob, argue, yell and even pound the table as you tried to fire him, all in an effort to train managers in the art of termination.
The repeated torment of Barry was fodder from everyone from the L.A. Times to Reuters.
While the demo was never used to train actual employees — it was tested by Fortune 500 innovation labs — it was designed to see if VR training experiences could be emotionally realistic.
It had the desired outcome for Talespin of catalyzing companies to start thinking about the positive uses VR could have for learning and development, Jackson said. The result was the emergence of cases like customer service training, practicing difficult workplace conversations, managerial training and leadership training.
“While a bit controversial, the demo did its part to raise awareness for VR soft skills training, as a concept,” Jackson said.
Competition
Talespin’s customer base includes Fortune 500 companies, consulting firms and other large businesses. Farmers Insurance and Accenture are among the companies using its technology.
Its competition includes Arsome, which uses AR, VR and MR to develop technology for its enterprise clients. Its programs and products include training simulations and immersive K-12 STEM modules.
A main differentiator for Talespin, according to Jackson, is its content authoring tool, which does not require any coding. That enables companies to create their own “dynamic" conversational content, Jackson said.
Benefit of being in Los Angeles
Talespin’s HQ is in Culver City.
“Los Angeles has always been a hub for great media technology, whether it is in the form of platforms to support the creation and distribution of movies, television, entertainment, gaming and more,” Jackson said. “Access to that talent pool helped us get a jump start in the beginning as we were building out a platform to support the creation and distribution of immersive content.”
