An Edinburgh ‘smart gloves’ firm has secured £1.75 million investment to expand its immersive staff training technology that can be used to simulate real-world environments in multiple sectors.
StretchSense designs digitally-connected gloves that can be worn in a range of settings including healthcare, education to aviation and defence.
Wearers can immerse themselves in lifelike training experience that builds muscle memory and translates to real world skills, enhanced with haptic technology that creates realistic sensations by using vibrations when touching digital objects.
The funding round was led by PXN Ventures and supported by Scottish Enterprise, as the company aims to drive the global expansion of its extended reality (XR) training glove that enables organisations to immerse staff in simulated environments.
Recently appointed CEO Chris Chapman, who was previously an investor director with the company, said: “StretchSense gloves bridge the gap between human and machine interaction. When you put on our Reality gloves you step into the future, and explore new ways to interact with hands-on learning. And, we do this by removing controllers and their clunky interfaces from the equation.”
CEO Chapman added: “The XR Train glove powers scalable, truly immersive training, delivering intuitive interaction, measurable outcomes, with deployment across enterprise and government environments.”
Chapman brings experience from leadership roles in wearables technology and animation markets across the US, Europe, and Asia, and previously co-founded global wearables business ElekSen, backed by Logitech and Siemens before going on to list on the AIM market in London.
StretchSense’s management, software, and marketing teams are based in Edinburgh, with its hardware and manufacturing operations located in Auckland, New Zealand. The XR Train glove is manufactured by TPK, with Taiwan-headquartered TPK known for manufacturing touch-based hardware for Apple and Tesla. TPK is also a shareholder in StretchSense, which also has a satellite office in the Bay Area.
Paul Atkinson, StretchSense’s Chair, said: “StretchSense is perfectly placed to become one of Scotland’s most successful technology businesses, with a global footprint aligned with significant market opportunities worldwide.”
The overall virtual training and simulation market is projected to reach around $265 billion by 2030.
StretchSense also recently appointed Philip Jamison as Chief Revenue Officer, with Philip having previously helped to grow XR business Avantis Systems in the US to over $25 million in revenue as VP of Sales and Commercial Operations.
