Urbanimmersive (UI.V) jumps towards success with virtual photography studio acquisition

Urbanimmersive (UI.V) completed their acquisition of real estate photography agency Virtual Access Tours (VAT) for CAD $961K in a mix of cash and shares.

The purchase helps the company complete another milestone in their growth plan. They’re the company’s first real estate photography business acquired in the United States. VAT is a well-established full service real estate marketing firm offering photography and virtual tours, including automated marketing systems, web site designs, floor plans and other marketing services to help realtors do their jobs.

It doesn’t hurt that they’re also a former client of Urbanimmersive’s and situated in the business heavy regions of New York City and Philadelphia, where they brought in a revenue of $559K last fiscal year.

“We are proud of having acquired Virtual Access Tours, a long-standing client of Urbanimmersive which is a strong promotor of our 3D marketing solutions, including UiMeet3D, and to welcome Michael and Cathy Basch, former owners of VAT to our team. This strategic acquisition also opens up new growth and cross-selling opportunities in the North-Eastern US territory”, said Ghislain Lemire, president and CEO of Urbanimmersive.

Urbanimmersive is one of those proto-metaverse company involved in the development and commercialization of real estate technologies. They provide virtual reality walkthroughs for real estate agents to use to wow their clients, using a platform involving high-volume photography involving high resolution AI-indexed images. The company makes money through their software-as-a-service offerings, 360 camera hardware and tech-powered real estate photography service units.

If the promise of the metaverse comes to fruition, we’re going to start seeing more companies like UI and VAT make an appearance. Especially as this pandemic doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon, the demand for safer, virtual exploration tools like those offered by UI is only going to go up. Their core technology is a 3D emulator powered by a visual content recognition algorithm that one-ups traditional 3D engines to create completely immersive digital environments.

“We are delighted to join the Urbanimmersive Group, a leader in real estate 3D marketing solutions which shall enhance our marketing product offering with their innovative 3D solutions and assist us in growing our business further”, said Michael Basch, president of Virtual Access Tours.

There’s no haptic suits or 3D virtual reality headsets yet, and yes, the experience is a little disjointing, with the visuals shifting and drifting with each tug of the mouse, but the effects are strong. You see the property like you would during a walkthrough but without the added worry of interacting with people who may transmit the virus.