This Monday, immersive maths education firm Prisms V.R. (virtual reality) secured $12.5 million in a series A funding round. The move comes as Prisms aims to accelerate math literacy and immersive education across the U.S.
Prisms are developing and distributing a V.R. immersive learning platform to accelerate maths and STEM learning. The firm aims its solution at K-12 STEM education.
Anurupa Ganguly, the Founder and CEO at Prisms, added:
Prisms is the first learning solution that empowers students to experience real-life problems with their bodies versus reading about them divorced from personal experience. They are then able to build up to shorthand abstractions from intuitive visual and tactile experiences that lead to enduring retention and deeper understanding.
The CEO also noted that “technology has failed our students”, especially in maths. However, Ganguly explains how immersive solutions can provide avenues to provide engaging experiential learning services.
Prism is using the awarded capital also to grow its product and support team. Moreover, the firm will allocate funds to expand its immersive learning solution across schools in the U.S.
Additionally, the funds will allow Prisms to start exploration into V.R. immersive learning solutions for higher education and different subjects.
Ganguly also noted that math education is V.R.’s most powerful use case. She said an immersive math education service will be a “killer app for V.R.”
Success for Prisms’ V.R. Math Education, Following Consumer Debut
News of the firm’s series A funding comes just days after Prisms launched a consumer variant of its service.
Prisms launched its immersive learning service as an application on Meta Quest’s digital storefront for VR/MR applications.
The move gives Meta Quest, and Pro users access to the service. Prisms are selling the application for $24 as an annual subscription model, with a 7-day trial option.
Prisms’ application provides Meta Quest users a service for teaching core middle school math, geometry and algebra I/II concepts at home.
The application contains single and multiplayer V.R. education content for both informal and formal learning settings.
Scaling Immersive Maths Education
Prisms is on an active mission to scale its solution. In August last year, the firm partnered with ManageXR to scale its STEM learning solution to schools in 60 areas. The move allowed Prisms to distribute its solution on roughly 5,000 Pico and Meta Quest devices for selected institutions.
By leveraging the ManageXR software distribution platform, Prisms can use tools to reduce troubleshooting times, streamline onboarding processes, and analyse performance data. Prisms also leverage the ManageXR service to distribute its application, firmware, and hardware updates to the selected partner schools.
In March of the same year, Prisms scaled its product to Oklahoma state school districts, following a $3 million fundraiser in 2021.
V.R. immersive learning solutions are growing as headset vendors like Meta also scale its product portfolio as workplace and classroom solutions.
Late last year, Meta showcased its Meta Quest Pro and Horizon Workrooms application to reflect its intention of defining the future of work via immersive M.R. solutions.
The Future of Work division at Meta UK conducted research that revealed that 81 percent of those surveyed want to work in collaborative settings.
In addition, the report asserts that approximately 16 percent of respondents believe video calls facilitate a sense of presence in meetings. 14 more people thought video conferencing made it easier to work with colleagues.
Because of these figures, Meta thinks businesses should start investing in X.R. headsets rather than laptops.
