Mesmerise Opens its First U.S. Office, Deepening Investment in North America as Growth in the Enterprise VR Market Accelerates

With the global VR market expected to surpass $10 trillion by 2030, Mesmerise's expanded U.S. presence will help the company drive growth while supporting a local client base that includes Mainetti and Morningstar

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Sept. 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Mesmerise, a company that helps global enterprises make the best use of virtual reality, today announced the opening of its first U.S. office. Located in Santa Monica, California, the new office will help the company deepen its support for existing U.S. clients while accelerating expansion into the region's growing enterprise market.

As a pioneer in the category of enterprise virtual reality, Mesmerise works with global companies to host virtual meetings, conferences, and training sessions. Industry-leading companies like Mainetti and Morningstar turn to Mesmerise–and its proprietary software platform, Gatherings–because the company delivers a virtual experience that gives executives all of the benefits of co-presence and in-person collaboration while eliminating travel costs and reducing corporate carbon footprints.

Mesmerise's groundbreaking work has helped the company grow quickly since its founding in 2016. The company has grown its headcount by a multiple of six in the last two years as it continues to win new business and drive innovation in the space. With L.A. recently establishing itself as the third largest tech ecosystem in the U.S., Mesmerise selected Santa Monica as its U.S. headquarters in order to tap into the city's wide-ranging technology market and unique talent pool to bolster its U.S. hiring efforts.

The company is also excited to add on two new members to the advisory board, Juan Pujadas, former Head of Global Advisory at PWC and board member of Wells Fargo, and Derrick Connel, former Corporate VP at Microsoft.

"We're proud of the momentum we've established so far in the U.K. and Europe, but we're  incredibly excited by the demand that we've seen in the U.S. market," said Andrew Hawken, Co-founder and CEO of Mesmerise. "It's clear to business leaders that virtual reality and the metaverse are no longer hypothetical, far-off possibilities. Instead, they represent seismological shifts across every dimension of the economy. We're eager to help enterprises navigate these changes by utilizing VR in smart, productive ways across their organizations."

Mesmerise's award-winning work includes a longtime collaboration with Morningstar, a leading provider of independent investment research. Mesmerise has hosted the VR component of its annual flagship conference, the Morningstar Investment Conference, for three years running. Mesmerise's work has allowed virtual attendees to participate from anywhere in the world, while enjoying virtual networking, live-streamed presentations, and exclusive "Meet the Analyst" sessions, all within the Morningstar virtual ecosystem.

Coinciding with the annual conference, Mesmerise also built two VR games, Bee Game and Sustainable City, that allowed in-person attendees to put on an Oculus headset and explore the impact of sustainability. Proceeds from in-game success metrics were donated to Openlands, a non-profit focused on promoting conservation in northeastern Illinois.

Mesmerise's focus also includes bespoke events, like the recent Harvard Business School class of 2017 reunion. Through VR, Mesmerise hosted 90 executives across 28 countries in a metaverse reunion, saving a total of 180 flights and resulting in a 90% reduction in carbon footprint.

In addition to creating virtual enterprise experiences, Mesmerise sponsored educational VR opportunities for under-resourced high schools in Los Angeles and Chicago throughout the 2021-2022 school year. Working in partnership with education non-profits, students were able to explore real-world lessons like "social and emotional impact of urban trauma" and career path opportunities in VR.

As hybrid work and learning environments become status quo, the need for dynamic solutions that establish co-presence, the feeling of being in the same room as someone, is only growing. Mesmerise is dedicated to providing global experiences that offer much needed alternatives to two-dimensional collaboration software and video conferencing.

In addition to its Santa Monica office, Mesmerise employees span the U.S. in various major cities including New York, Austin, Detroit, and Seattle. To learn more about Mesmerise, visit www.mesmerisevr.com.

Mesmerise helps leading enterprises, including Morningstar, Well Fargo, and Allianz, host immersive meetings, conferences, training sessions, and events in virtual reality. Through Mesmerise's proprietary Gatherings platform, global companies can bring their teams together to host custom virtual experiences for any occasion. Mesmerise was founded in 2016 by Andrew Hawken and Daglar Cizmeci, originally launched in the U.K. Today, the company's immersive VR experiences span the globe with its U.S. headquarters in Santa Monica, California helping to bring its bespoke activations worldwide.

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SOURCE The Mesmerise Group