On a moonshot mission to turbocharge VR workplace training, Moonhub lands with $2.6 million

As a response to the ‘great resignation’ trend that has emerged from higher levels of social disconnection over the past two years, organisations are increasingly adopting a people-oriented approach to support employee retention and engagement. In 2021, firms saw their training expenditures rise to more than £800 per employee. When deployed at scale, VR can save companies up to 64% in learning and development spending.

Forward-thinking learning and development managers, along with heads of operations, are thus, transitioning companies away from traditional in-house training models to more innovative and interactive VR platforms that can upskill employees at pace, instill greater confidence in their roles and help staff develop new skills to keep them motivated and engaged.

Enter London-based platform MOONHUB. Founded in 2016 by Dami Hastrup, Vinh Ly and Hannah Sutcliffe, the VR technology platform offers an immersive experience for learners and provides an analytical performance overview for organisations to streamline data-driven solutions.

By digitally simulating lifelike scenarios, its VR training platform creates a 360- degree learning environment with quantitative performance data collected on dashboards for managers. The real-life roleplay situations also enable effective knowledge transfer. The company has now raised $2.6 million in seed funding to further transform workplace learning across all sectors through VR. The round was led by Pi Labs with participation from Ada Ventures, 1818 Venture Capital and numerous angel investors.

Dami Hastrup, CEO, MOONHUB, said: “Our patent being filed five years ago shows that MOONHUB has always had a laser-focused vision on what VR training in the workplace should look like. As we grow our client list and move to expand our off-the-shelf training library, we’re thrilled to grow our team in our pursuit to solidify ourselves as a go-to name in the VR training space.”

Faisal Butt, CEO and founder, Pi Labs, said: “The future of the workplace is still one of the most speculative aspects of the built environment. From our perspective as proptech investors, the evolution of workplace strategies will require businesses to identify skills gaps and develop targeted training strategies for geographically dispersed workforces. The fact that MOONHUB can be deployed across multiple sectors, to accelerate onboarding, improve performance and enhance soft skills, means that the market for this in the years to come will be seismic. Especially with hybrid working here to stay, almost all companies will need to embrace VR training solutions to attract, retain and develop talent.”

The company’s current client list includes the likes of Just Eat, Here East in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Royal Opera House, Rawbank, Sports Interactive and more.