Silicon Valley company acquires virtual reality tour operator
Silicon Valley company acquires virtual reality tour operator
Proptech comes of age: Two rivals in immersive reality have joined forces
Matterport, the Sunnyvale, California-based immersive media company, has acquired Virtual Walkthrough, the London-based startup that has made waves in recent months for its fully navigable, 360-degree virtual tours through real estate developments.
Matterport will parlay the acquisition — one of the first in the field of property technology — into expansion opportunities in Europe. Virtual Walkthrough will retain its name as a wholly owned subsidiary of Matterport.
Also to remain with the company is Virtual Walkthrough co-founder James Morris-Manuel, who will serve as sales director for EMEA.
“It is a big testament to where our property technology industry is and how we are positioned,” Morris-Manuel said, adding that the acquisition marks a “coming of age” for the proptech industry.
Morris-Manuel said that the recent UK referendum, which saw the sterling fall dramatically, did not have any bearing on the acquisition or its price, which has not been disclosed.
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As Matterport’s European business development headquarters, Virtual Walkthrough will serve to resell Matterport products, which run the gamut from innovative hardware like the Matterport Pro Camera, which works with the Apple iPad to simulate 3D models of properties, to a suite of cloud services.
Virtual Walkthrough will sell products direct to agencies, photographers, and floor-plan providers in Europe, Morris-Manuel told PropertyWeek.
Prior to the acquisition, Virtual Walkthrough’s clients had numbered more than 200, including CBRE, Hammerson, Standard Life, Sellmyhome.co.uk, and Winkworth.
Morris-Manuel expects Matterport to provide room for infrastructural growth. “The infrastructure it gives us across the spectrum, from marketing to sales and tech development, helps all aspects of our business,” he said.
In a press release, Matterport chief executive Bill Brown, saw Virtual Walkthrough as a “natural fit” into his organisation.
“Both companies share the same vision of enabling people to experience places as if they were there. We’re excited to continue to expand our vision together, on a global scale, for more people and across more industries,” Brown said.
Read next: How technology is changing almost every aspect of real estate
Source: Property Report