From left to right – Mitko Yankov and Stephen Bowman, Co-founders of MetaSim.
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Published by Vassil Terziev, Managing Partner at Eleven.
It pretty much seems that the metaverse race has started. We just heard the news from Facebook about their new vision and it’s rebranding to Meta. In addition, last week Microsoft announced 3D avatars and immersive settings for Microsoft Teams. More and more companies are preparing for a “metaverse future”, while others have already been tapping into the benefits of VR and augmented reality’s advancement, especially in the workplace.
As we learn to adapt to changing work environments – from an increasingly remote-based workforce to the challenges faced by the long-term impact of Covid-19, having a strong and reliable skills base has never been more important. Still, most training and onboarding models are too reliant on people being physically together and learning on the job by observing. Moving forward, companies will have to find new ways to train and onboard employees without sacrificing the quality of the experience.
Our latest investment – MetaSim, might have the answer.
MetaSim reimagines how humans acquire and apply knowledge
by using emerging technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and platforms like Oculus to deliver this novel experience. They are creating a highly realistic, engaging and safe environment, where people can learn and practice new skills without the need to travel or mobilize others to acquire those skills.
The market wave is coming,
and it will give rise to new players in the big and growing training market, even though the application of VR in soft skills training is in its infancy. Advances in technology such as VR, AR, AI, and deep learning will redefine the landscape and give rise to more immersive and personalized training at the workplace.
The superpower of VR is that it taps into all three learning systems of the brain – cognitive, behavioural and emotional. It also has unlimited creative capacity for powerful simulations that “teleport” a human to a place, time and situation without the need for travel. Powered by this technology, MetaSim enables a person to experience and understand another person’s perspective, which propels learners to new practices and behaviors.
Thanks to its immersive nature that brings characters and objects to life, VR training makes it easier to learn more quickly, retain more knowledge and gain a deeper comprehension of the matter at hand.
But numbers* speak louder than words:
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V-learners are up to 275% more confident to act on what they learned.
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V-learners are more emotionally connected to the content .
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V-learners are up to four times more focused during a training.
*The Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Soft Skills Training in the Enterprise, PwC, June 2020.
A long-standing challenge
is that there’s no simulator-like experience (like the ones available for aircraft pilots) available for soft skills training. As a result, most employees, junior or senior, learn only through real mistakes when it comes to hiring and firing people, giving feedback, selling, etc. This could be a drag on productivity and personal development in the organization that MetaSim can help address.
The specific problem MetaSim is solving is the inconsistency of people and performance management skills among managers and employees, representing one of the biggest blockers of performance improvement and business transformation. This challenge is worsened by the lack of scalable and effective alternatives to high-impact teaching methods, like classroom training, in the emerging hybrid workplace model.
MetaSim combines bleeding edge technology with behavioral science
to create immersive and authentic virtual reality experiences that help people acquire new skills faster and practice difficult situations in a highly realistic, engaging and safe environment. To give you a better idea here’s how the MetaSim experience works:
- The simulation puts a photorealistic, interactive avatar in front of the player and follows a branching narrative that leads to different outcomes depending on his choices;
- An analytics engine processes speech, gaze, motion and choice data and returns objective scoring and feedback to the player with an immediate and infinite opportunity to replay and practice;
- A reporting engine interfaces with the client’s LMS (Learning Management System) and produces reports to measure not just completion but performance and progression.
The founders
met at a social gathering back in 2015 and have been friends ever since. Everyone got the VR bug from Stephen, who’s been tracking, evangelising and experimenting with XR technology for donkey’s years and brings a very deep understanding of the field with his focus fixated on the future. Mitko, on the other hand, is the explorer in the team who comes with extensive business experience as a commercial leader with 25 years of running businesses, building products and developing people. As experienced entrepreneurs and executives, Geri and Kayee bring comprehensive operational, strategy and innovation knowledge into the team.
And to wrap this article up, we want to share a quote from MetaSim’s CEO, Mitko, which pretty much summarizes our excitement about backing up MetaSim:
“We started MetaSim because we share a common vision that VR can expand human potential and accelerate growth and progress in virtually every industry. We’re fascinated by the promise of this technology and its novel application in fields like corporate training that’s ripe for disruption. Our ambition is to reimagine how humans acquire and apply knowledge and bring the triple-A gaming buzz to corporate training!”
Curious to learn more about MetaSim? Visit their website – http://metasim.io.
