InContext raises $15.2 million for retail and manufacturing VR products

Chicago startup InContext Solutions has raised $15.2 million from Intel Capital and others to create virtual reality solutions for retailers and manufacturers.

Intel Capital announced the deal at its annual Intel Capital Summit today. Other investors include Beringea, Plymouth Ventures, and existing investors. InContext helps retailers visualize what their store shelves will look like in a simulated retail store. The investment is one of 12 companies that Intel Capital poured $38 million into.

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The round will help the company accelerate sales and marketing efforts, expand its geographic reach, and improve its VR product portfolio, including further development of solutions for head-mounted devices.

“This latest round of funding gives us strong strategic backers who share our vision of even more robust, fully immersive virtual reality solutions for retail,” said Mark Hardy, CEO of InContext, in a statement. “We have long been a leader in web-based VR, and this investment allows us to aggressively develop our VR platform, further lowering costs and improving speed and revenue for our clients.”

InContext Solutions helps retailers and manufacturers more rapidly visualize, test, and deploy new retail concepts, using realistic simulations of actual retail environments. The feature, which is available through InContext’s flagship ShopperMX VR platform, allows clients to create optimal in-store shopper experiences that lower risk and improve the bottom line.

VR has proven to be a disruptive new approach to traditionally slow and expensive retail processes, significantly reducing the cost and time required for companies to conceive, create, test and activate in-store experiences. By streamlining these processes, InContext Solutions VR technology powers shopping experiences that are more engaging for consumers and more profitable for clients.

“Virtual reality is moving beyond the gaming community, with use cases rising up across many different industries,” said Doug Fisher, senior vice president and general manager of the software and services group at Intel, in a statement. “InContext Solutions has already had a significant impact on virtual reality for the retail and manufacturing industries. We are excited to see how virtual reality solutions, such as InContext Solutions, based on Intel architecture, are poised to transform industries in more immersive, interactive ways.”

Intel and InContext Solutions last month announced a collaboration to develop new VR solutions for the retail ecosystem.