Virtual reality gets real: Australian start-ups go beyond gimmicks

Melbourne start-up Phoria went from using virtual reality for real estate firms to working with kids with cancer in a "quintessential lightbulb moment".

A family contacted the business after seeing it on TV as part of a virtual reality project in the property selling space. They asked whether the team could bring the high-tech headsets into hospital for their daughter, who was having cancer treatment.

"It really flicked a switch in our minds — how do we leverage this for good?" co-founder Trent Clews-de Castella says.

The 'immersive technology' company, which started in 2014, has hit the $1 million revenue mark and is fast approaching $2 million. Clews-de Castella and co-founder Joseph Purdam say they've been able to grow the business by building virtual reality projects that have real life value and social good.

Phoria has spent the past year working with the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Royal Children's Hospital and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre on projects to investigate whether VR tech can have a positive impact on child cancer patients. Read more
Emma Koehn - Brisbane Times - 18 Nov 2018