When Glenn Banton was hired as chief operating officer of Havik Corp. earlier this year, he had two immediate recommendations for the virtual reality training firm.
“We needed to find a headquarters, and it needed to be in Texas or Florida,” Banton told Orlando Inno.
After three years as a dispersed company with no true base of operations, Havik considered Virginia, Texas and Florida before picking Orlando as its new headquarters, the company announced Nov. 22.
As a result of the move to Orlando, Havik soon will hunt for permanent office space in Central Florida, Banton said. Plus, the 16-person company aims to create up to 18 high-wage developer positions in the region in the next 12 months, Banton added.
It makes sense for Havik to join Orlando’s $6 billion modeling, simulation and training industry focused on high-tech products for the military. Founded by CEO and former Navy SEAL Bradley Denn, Havik makes a portable, immersive virtual reality training system for the military, particularly special forces operators.
Havik’s VR training systems are cheaper and less cumbersome than traditional immersive simulators used in the defense space. Plus, Havik is building out a platform capable of hosting a wide range of ground-based virtual training exercises from mortar training to vehicle training, Banton said. “As long as it's not a flight simulator, that’s what we’re building.”
Havik targeted Orlando as its permanent home not only because of the large simulation industry and related talent pool but also because of the growing gaming sector. Banton describes Havik as a video game studio that does work for the Department of Defense, so the firm will target gaming talent graduating from local universities like Full Sail University in Winter Park.
The company already has landed a few defense contracts, including a renewable, $3 million deal with the Air National Guard that'll last three years.
Denn was able to turn a profit at Havik within a year of founding the company, which isn’t common among early-stage technology companies. Havik will be profitable this year, and the company is almost guaranteed to make a profit next year too, Banton said.
Next week, Havik will join more than 450 companies from around the world, including 105 Florida firms, as an exhibitor at flagship annual simulation trade show I/ITSEC, held in Orlando from Nov. 28-Dec. 2.
Havik is a “welcome addition” to the local simulation ecosystem, said John Cunningham, head of government aerospace with Unity Software Inc. (NYSE: U) and founder & president of the VR/AR Association Central Florida Chapter. “Thanks to Orlando’s critical mass of large gaming, entertainment, modeling and simulation and immersive technology companies and related education programs and degrees, our region has become an internationally recognized technology hub and the MetaCenter of the Metaverse.”
Central Florida often is considered the world hub for modeling, simulation and training due to the fact Orlando is home to the simulation commands for the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force.
Federal contracts are an economic driver in Central Florida. Metro Orlando companies alone landed $5.3 billion worth of federal contract obligations in fiscal-year 2022, according to the U.S. government’s spending database. Orange County, the home of two big Lockheed Martin Corp. campuses and the defense-focused simulation hub near the University of Central Florida, was the site of $4.7 billion of those spending obligations.
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