INVEST IN VIRZOOM TODAY!
Bringing action and adventure to the metaverse
$28,722.92 Raised
REASONS TO INVEST
VirZOOM’s team has developed VR exercise apps and games based on proprietary technology since early 2015, and shipped commercially since June 2016. Collectively, our work encompasses over 162 years of game design and over 40 years of VR development, building a number of best-selling products including Guitar Hero ($1B rev), Rock Band ($2B rev), and Dance Central ($50M rev).
Our current shipping 3rd generation product is our VR fitness subscription service VZfit 2.0. MRR grew 30% and Subscriptions 40% in 2022 over 2021. VZfit sales in early 2023 are up 27% over the same 2022 period.
We are developing our 4th generation of Virtual Reality Exercise Games based on new technology and recently launched our testbed app for this new tech.**
the pitch
VirZOOM’s patented and patent-pending VR motion technology allows users to move continuously and freely through the Metaverse, controlling motion through VR worlds with body movements and position while standing. We are pioneering fitness-oriented virtual reality games that play like sports in the real world. You get fit by playing games designed for exercise, Virtual Reality Exercise Games. Our motion technology is patented under the same name, Virtual Reality Exercise Game and trademarked as Virtual Reality that Moves You®.
Overview
Bringing Action and Adventure to a Meta Quest Near You
To create physical VR games that play like real world sports, the VR industry needs a new form of locomotion. That’s what VirZOOM does. Our patented and trademarked technology solves one of the biggest problems in VR, allowing users to move through the Metaverse continuously and freely without inducing VR sickness. Our technology lets us create physical VR games that are fun to play and at the same time deliver exercise benefits, the way sports like skiing and cycling do in the real world.
Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab (source), put it this way after trying VZfit games last year:
"I was blown away by the VirZOOM experience… it is critical to leverage the natural leaning movements that our perceptual systems have grown used to in the real world. By integrating head movements with pedaling, VirZOOM’s control scheme was shockingly easy and engaging.
They have discovered how to solve one of VR’s hardest problems – moving freely through large virtual spaces without getting dizzy or uncomfortable. I normally avoid any experience in VR that is not based on physically walking, but leaning into turns while pedaling through virtual space is among the best experiences I have ever had in VR in 25 years."
*This testimonial may not be representative of the experience of other customers and is not a guarantee of future performance or success.
*VZfit, our 3rd generation VR Exercise Games
THE PROBLEM & OUR SOLUTION
We Make Every Hour of In-Home Fitness Feel Like Twenty Minutes of Fun
Affordability. Convenience. Motivation.
A recent study conducted by the CDC, found that only 53.3% of adults are meeting objectives for aerobic physical activity and only 23.2% met the guidelines for both aerobics and strength-training (source).
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has identified physical inactivity as being a leading cause of disease and disability on a global scale (source). So why aren’t more people exercising? According to exercise.com, the most pressing challenges for staying active are lack of motivation, lack of convenience, and the high cost of investing in gym memberships or equipment.
Taking a closer look at the numbers:
- Americans spend about $1.3 billion on unused gym memberships annually.
- The average gym membership costs $58 per month, or $796 per year with fees.
- 82% of gym members go to the gym less than 1 time per week and
- 22% completely stop going 6 months into their membership (source)
- The average gym member “underutilizes” two-thirds of their gym dues by $39 per month, or $468 per year. (source)
Enter: VZfit. A VR-based solution that is affordable, convenient, motivating, and scientifically proven. For just $449 ($349 Meta Quest 2 + $99.99 annual subscription), VZfit customers typically log 40 minutes of exercise, 3 days per week, nearly twice the CDC’s recommendation of 75 minutes weekly. And what’s more, many of our users tell us playing VR Exercise Games doesn’t feel like working out at all. Some call it: “The workout without the work.” As a recent reviewer at Men’s Fitness states: “[With VZfit] 20 minutes have flown by and I haven’t even noticed.”
But we are not done!
VZfit, our third generation product, focused on users with fitness equipment. But there is a much larger market of VR users who could benefit from games like ours. This is why we went back to the drawing board and created the patent-pending motion tech that is in Motion Labs. This testbed app is going to be the future of VirZOOM and we expect our next generation of fun fitness apps to stem from it. And the best part is, you can try it yourself!
*The above is a rendering of a future product. Product is still currently under development and is not yet available on the market.
Additionally, the effectiveness of VirZOOM’s VR Exercise Games has been clinically proven in tests conducted by Exeter University London and Brunel University and published in the peer reviewed British Journal of Health Psychology: Ready Exerciser One: Effects of music and virtual reality on cycle ergometer exercise
Researchers concluded: “The VR and VR-with-music conditions elicited the most positive affective valence, highest levels of perceived activation, greatest number of dissociative thoughts, and most exercise enjoyment… The present findings illustrate the efficacy of modern VR technology in the exercise context.”
THE MARKET & OUR TRACTION
Riding To The Top in Revenue, Ratings, and Reviews
"The global metaverse market size in 2022 was valued at US$47.48 billion with a growth rate of 39.44% CAGR to a valuation of US$678.80 billion by 2030." - Strategic Market Research, June 2022 (source)
“A lot of people have been using VR for fitness. It’s probably the most fun way to get in some quick cardio.” - Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, October 2020 (source)
In October 2021 Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg identified VR Fitness as a strategic segment of the company’s future Metaverse plans (source).
That month, Meta announced the acquisition of VR Fitness developer Within, maker of popular VR Fitness app SuperNatural, for $400M (source). Since 2019, Meta has acquired 11 VR technology and game studios including CTRL-labs, Beat Games, Sanzaru Games, Scape Technologies, Ready at Dawn, Lemnis Technologies, Downpour Interactive, BigBox VR, Within, Twisted Pixel Games, and Armature Studio (source).
HTC launched their new Elite XR Mixed Reality (VR and AR) headset and identified VR Fitness among four applications for the new headset (source). Our current shipping product VZFit is available through the Meta Quest store where it has been installed by over 740,000 users and is among the top 10% of the platform’s earners, generating over $1 million in lifetime revenue (source). Our platform has nearly 6,000 subscribers and averaged $50K MRR in 2022, a 762% increase over 2019. We have also achieved a 4.0 out of 5 stars rating from our app customers.
Recent milestones in 2022 include:
- VZfit 2.0 launch
- New patent filing and next generation VR Exercise Game prototypes
- Active Monthly Users: 16,765*
- Session Duration and Frequency: 40 minutes/session, 3 days per week* = 120 minutes/week versus 75 minutes/week CDC recommendation
- Total virtual kilometers traveled by VZfit users: 4,009,934* (equivalent to 5 round trips to the moon)
- Total calories burned by VZfit users: 118,378,815**
* Source: VZfit telemetry Feb. 5, 2023 since May 2019
** Sources: VZfit telemetry average 29 calories/vKM. Statistical average 32 calories per kilometer (https://burned-calories.com/cycling)
VirZOOM’s VR Fitness segment traction:
Why Invest
Join A World Class Team Bringing Natural Movement and Sports-like Experiences to the Metaverse
Over the past seven years, VirZOOM has been able to establish itself as an innovator in the virtual reality and gaming space, with a patented system that levels up the VR fitness experience. With more products and partnerships in our pipeline, we believe our proprietary motion control technology will be capable of carving out an entirely new category of exercise games. We aim to expand on the VR Exercise Game category we created to include every VR headset user and inspire even more users to get fit while playing VR games and get fit in the metaverse.
ABOUT
HEADQUARTERS
56 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
WEBSITE
View Site
VirZOOM is a patent-based Virtual Reality Exercise Game platform that combines fun, fitness, and Metaverse exploration all in one. Our elite ensemble of game designers and developers has shipped three generations of products since 2016. Our current subscription-based app has nearly 6k subscribers and over 740k installs on Meta Quest. Now we’re developing our 4th gen products to reach a customer audience many times larger.
TEAM
Eric Janszen
Founder, President & Director
Eric Malafeew
Co-Founder & CTO
Michael W.G. Fix
Director, Investor, Advisor
Jason Warburg
Chief Product Officer
Robert Collins
Chief Operating Officer
Peter Macdonald
Art Director
Christine Barrett
UI/UX Software Engineer
Eyal Zilberman
Customer Experience Manager
Ben de la Cretaz
Consulting Chief Financial Officer
Danielle Quinlan
Consulting Social Media Marketing Coordinator
Ike Adams
Consulting Senior Software Engineer
TERMS
VirZoom
Overview
PRICE PER SHARE
$0.49
DEADLINE
May 1, 2023
VALUATION
$45.76M
AMOUNT RAISED
$28,722.92
Breakdown
MIN INVESTMENT
$249.90
MAX INVESTMENT
$911,955.66
MIN NUMBER OF SHARES OFFERED
20,408
OFFERING TYPE
Equity
ASSET TYPE
PREFERRED
SHARES OFFERED
Series A-5 Preferred Stock
MAX NUMBER OF SHARES OFFERED
1,861,134
Maximum Number of Shares Offered subject to adjustment for bonus shares
Company | : | VirZOOM, Inc. |
Corporate Address | : | 56 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 |
Offering Minimum | : | $9,999.92 |
Offering Maximum | : | $911,955.66 |
Minimum Investment Amount(per investor) | : | $249.90 |
Terms
Offering Type | : | Equity |
Security Name | : | Series A-5 Preferred Stock |
Minimum Number of Shares Offered | : | 20,408 |
Maximum Number of Shares Offered | : | 1,861,134 |
Price per Share | : | $0.49 |
Pre-Money Valuation | : | $45,758,966.05 |
*Maximum number of shares offered subject to adjustment for bonus shares. See Bonus info below.
Company Perks & Incentives
Loyalty Bonus | 10% Bonus Shares
As you have previously invested in VirZoom you are eligible for additional bonus shares.
Time-Based
Friends and Family Early Birds
Invest within the first 7 days and receive 5% bonus shares.
Super Early Bird Bonus
Invest within the first two weeks and receive 3% bonus shares.
Early Bird Bonus
Invest within the first three weeks and receive 2% bonus shares.
Amount-Based
$500+ | Bronze Tier
Invest $500+ and receive 1% bonus shares.
$1,000+ |Silver Tier
Invest $1,000+ and receive 2% bonus shares.
$2,500+ | Gold Tier
Invest $2,500+ and receive an exclusive VirZoom hoodie and 3% bonus shares.
$5,000+ | Platinum Tier
Invest $5,000+ and receive an exclusive VirZoom hoodie, 5 free copies of VirZoom's next title, early access to VirZooms next title, and 4% bonus shares.
$10,000+ | Diamond Tier
Invest $10,000+ and receive an exclusive VirZoom hoodie, 5 free copies of VirZoom's next title, early access to VirZoom's next title, a 30-minute call with CEO/Founder Eric Janszen, and 5% bonus shares.
*In order to receive perks from an investment, one must submit a single investment in the same offering that meets the minimum perk requirement. Bonus shares from perks will not be granted if an investor submits multiple investments that, when combined, meet the perk requirement. All perks occur when the offering is completed.
The 10% StartEngine Owners' Bonus
VirZOOM, Inc. will offer 10% additional bonus shares for all investments that are committed by investors that are eligible for the StartEngine Crowdfunding Inc. OWNer's bonus.
This means eligible StartEngine shareholders will receive a 10% bonus for any shares they purchase in this offering. For example, if you buy 100 shares of Series A-5 Preferred Stock at $0.49/ share, you will receive 110 shares of Series A-5 Preferred Stock, meaning you'll own 110 shares for $49. Fractional shares will not be distributed and share bonuses will be determined by rounding down to the nearest whole share
This 10% Bonus is only valid during the investors eligibility period. Investors eligible for this bonus will also have priority if they are on a waitlist to invest and the company surpasses its maximum funding goal. They will have the first opportunity to invest should room in the offering become available if prior investments are canceled or fail.
Investors will receive the highest single bonus they are eligible for among the bonuses based on the amount invested and time of offering elapsed (if any). Eligible investors will also receive the Owner’s Bonus and Loyalty Bonus in addition to the aforementioned bonus.
Irregular Use of Proceeds
The Company will not incur any irregular use of proceeds.
PRESS
ALL UPDATES
03.21.23
Early Bird Rewards End Soon
03.20.23
Intro from the CEO: Welcome to VirZOOM!
Hi Everyone,
The VirZOOM team is excited to be here with you on StartEngine!
In this first update I'd like to take a few moments to introduce you to VirZOOM, what we're all about and why we're running this campaign.
Customer Problem
The fitness industry is famous for fads and gimmicks. Back in 2015 when we started we wanted to create something real and lasting, an entirely new enjoyable, convenient, and affordable physical activity that never existed before, made possible by the unique immersive quality of VR. We call these VR Exercise Games. We have a patent on the technology that makes them possible: “VR Exercise Game.”
In 2015 we set out to harness the unique immersive power of VR to solve a large and persistent customer problem, to give consumers a new way to get the regular exercise they know they need but have not been able to get themselves to do, no matter how hard they try.
We wanted our VR Exercise Games to be so varied and enjoyable that our customers play them over and over again. They'll lose weight and improve cardio health without having to commit themselves to a boring fitness routine that they are unlikely to stick with. We knew that if we succeeded we could change thousands of people's lives for the better.
Our Solution
The most common reasons people give for not exercising are that they aren't motivated, don't have time, or can't afford it, or all three.
When you put on a VR headset and launch our shipping VR Exercise Game VZfit, you are transported into virtual worlds. Unlike flat screen in-home solutions like Peloton, you aren't looking at a screen on a tablet in front of you. The virtual world is all around you. As you propel yourself through these virtual worlds under your own power and control, you react to the world and it reacts to you, much like sports in the real world.
Unlike the real world, we have created fantastical experiences to let you do things in VR you could hardly imagine doing in the real world. You can explore 10 million miles of roads mapped by Google Street View, or play games to race, chase, fly, and battle in competition with AI or other live players.
Our Mission
"To make an hour of in-home fitness feel like 20 minutes of fun." Did we succeed?
Our VZfit app since early 2021 has earned a 4 out of 5 Star rating on the Meta Quest store where VZfit is sold. Here are a few samples out of 324 of the 5 Star reviews.
- Life Changer! Have never been a cycler because of the dangers of traffic and air pollution. With VZFit I can travel in the safety of my own home, while working out! I'm having a lot of fun taking snapshots and wowing Facebook buds with my cycling adventures. Changing my subscription to the annual plan.
- I’ve tried various exercise methods (Ring Fit, Peloton, gym, spin classes, etc). While most were good for a while, they didn’t hold my interest long-term. As an avid traveler pre-pandemic, the whole “see the world while you exercise” got me hooked.
- VirZOOM is awesome. I was one of the original buyers into VirZOOM in 2016. I love it as much as when I first got it. Games make exercise much more fun. The customer service is outstanding. (Posted Feb 2022)
- Leave the apartment in an instant. For a 3D wonderland and get a workout. I've been riding with VirZOOM for 6 years. My own personal favorites are the flying games riding Pegasus and the tank battles, but you get to choose what you like.
- An incredible game. More than 1400 miles cycled last year, all over the world. This game has completely changed the way I exercise and has provided a way to work out that is fun, engaging and great for both my physical and mental health.
- Best VR exercise. I've been playing the VirZOOM games for years now. Never got more exercise in my life since I started playing VZFit's games. I was playing on the PSVR system back when they supported that in 2016. I bought a Quest 2 just to keep playing the VZ games. (Posted May 2022)
- Super Immersive and Addictive. I've had VR headsets, both mobile and PC, since 2015 and this app is one of the most immersive experiences I've tried yet. I've put about 4 hours in so far in less than a week's use. I think this is one of those apps, like Beat Saber or Dance Dance Revolution, that will get you in shape and help you lose weight, but you'll be having too much fun to notice it. I almost can't believe this exists.
This is what gets us up in the morning, to constantly improve this new form of exercise we've created that is helping thousands get more fit and healthy.
The quality of our VR Exercise Games that keeps customers playing frequently for years does more than satisfy our desire to improve the health of our fellow humans. It also translates into high customer retention and that's critical for building a strong recurring revenue business. Improving the health of our customers and creating shareholder value go hand in hand.
Pleased as we are to have fulfilled our mission "To make an hour of in-home fitness feel like 20 minutes of fun" for so many customers with our early generations of products, we knew that we had one step farther. We needed to find a way to get this winning exercise motivation solution into the hands of more consumers. That's where our new VR motion tech and VR Exercise Games comes in.
Under the hood of our VR Exercise Games, as I mentioned at the beginning of this update, is patented VR motion tech. It relies on the use of a stationary bike as a game controller: the faster you pedal, the faster your avatar moves through the world. You steer by leaning.
Fantastic as the resulting user experiences are that we can build from this control scheme, a business challenge remains: Meta reports they've sold 20 million Meta Quest headsets. We estimate that only around 1% of them also have a bike to use with VZfit. That restricts our total available market to around 200,000 Quest users. If we can convert 20% of them into $12 monthly subscribers that's a decent $5.8M ARR business, but we can do better.
What if we could find a way to get our VR motion tech to work without a bike, with the VR headset alone? Then we could bring the benefits of our VR Exercise Game solution to millions of users, not just thousands.
That's what we started to do last year. First, we filed a new patent on a way to use your body to move freely and accurately through VR worlds using body position alone, no bike needed. We call this tech "Body-Active VR Controls." With the bike-based games, pedaling to play made you exercise. With our new headset-only games, game play movements like squats to duck or jump, combined with arm movements to throw, hit, and grab as part, produce the exercise benefit.
Next we developed our first prototypes of these new games. These are now available on the Meta Quest Apps Lab store in an app called MotionLabs. Based on user feedback of these test games we plan to derive New Game X, the code name for the world's first Body-Active VR Exercise Game that we plan to develop next.
Summary
We're not satisfied with thousands of healthy customers, we want millions. The purpose of this campaign is to raise funds to finance development and market New Game X in order to scale our unique solution. In the bargain we want to create as much shareholder value as we can, so that the team and our investors can some day enjoy a major exit, via sale of the company or IPO.
That's what we're about and that's why we are running this campaign here on StartEngine. We hope you decide to join us. If you already have, thank you!
Tomorrow my Co-Founder and CTO Eric Malafeew and I head off to San Francisco for the Game Developer Conference (GDC). We'll be showing MotionLabs to various interested parties.
Stay tuned for updates from GDC next week.
Thank you for investing in and supporting our project! We couldn’t do it without you. I hope you enjoy our updates here as we make the exciting next stage of our journey.
All the best,
Eric Janszen
Co-Founder & CEO
3%
Super Early Bird Bonus
Invest within the first two weeks and receive 3% bonus shares.
Stack Owner's Bonus & Rewards!
Members get an extra 10% shares in addition to rewards below!
REWARDS
$249
StartEngine Owner’s Bonus
This offering is eligible for the StartEngine Owner’s 10% Bonus program. For details on this program, please see the Offering Summary section below.
$249
Super Early Bird Bonus
Invest within the first two weeks and receive 3% bonus shares.
$500
Bronze Tier
Invest $500+ and receive 1% bonus shares.
$1,000
Silver Tier
Invest $1,000+ and receive 2% bonus shares.
$2,500
Gold Tier
Invest $2,500+ and receive an exclusive VirZoom hoodie and 3% bonus shares.
$5,000
Platinum Tier
Invest $5,000+ and receive an exclusive VirZoom hoodie, 5 free copies of VirZoom's next title, early access to VirZooms next title, and 4% bonus shares.
$10,000
Diamond Tier
Invest $10,000+ and receive an exclusive VirZoom hoodie, 5 free copies of VirZoom's next title, early access to VirZoom's next title, a 30-minute call with CEO/Founder Eric Janszen, and 5% bonus shares.
JOIN THE DISCUSSION
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HOW INVESTING WORKS
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