GMC member FLAIM Systems has attracted a $6.7 million Series A capital raise, cornerstoned by an investment of $5 million by Victorian Government’s investment company Breakthrough Victoria.
FLAIM has made training safer for firefighters and the environment with its development of the world’s first fully immersive virtual firefighting training system.
Breakthrough Victoria’s investment will support the company to expand its operations and further develop its technology, with job creation already commenced and projected to create 25 new high value jobs by 2026.
Breakthrough Victoria Chair, the Hon. John Brumby AO, was at FLAIM for the announcement and said:
“Firefighters put their lives on the line to keep our community safe – this innovation in virtual reality training will help keep them safe during training and provide the experience they need on the frontline.
“We see a real potential for this world-first Victorian technology to be adopted by emergency services agencies around the world.”
Born out of Deakin University in 2019, FLAIM Systems has developed the world’s first fully immersive virtual firefighting training system. The FLAIM Trainer delivers a safe and cost-effective way to replicate the stress and uncertainty of real-world situations to better prepare the firefighter community to respond. It combines a VR headset with haptic technology, which creates a kinaesthetic “feels-real” experience by applying force feedback to the user. This includes simulating an operational fire hose and a thermal vest that reproduces the heat firefighters experience in different scenarios from the direction of the fire.
The FLAIM Trainer tracks performance data in real time against training outcomes. This includes task completion time, air and water usage, stress levels, where the trainee is moving and looking within the scenario, how they position themselves and interact with virtual objects in the scenario such as gas meters, electrical boxes, or the fire itself.
As FLAIM training is virtual, there is no carcinogen exposure to the firefighter or instructor, and 2,000 hours of annual training in one system saves the equivalent of 20 million litres of water and 27 tonnes of carbon emissions.
From bushfires in remote locations to fires on aircraft, industrial sites and residential properties in urban areas – FLAIM Systems has developed 80 different virtual reality (VR) training scenarios that allow firefighters to train across different situations with no risk to their health or the environment. With more than 10 million professional and volunteer fire fighters around the world, this technology offers the potential to make training safer for firefighters and the environment on a global scale, with the company already working with over 300 emergency services agencies, defence and higher education organisations and private enterprise in 45 countries, with the primary focus on scaling opportunities in Australia, the USA and UK.
Net proceeds of the $6.7 million capital raise will be applied towards development of FLAIM Systems’ technology stack, focusing on building an in-house learning development platform, strengthening its team across executive, technical, sales, marketing and customer experience roles, and working capital to support scale-up and fund a shift from capital sales to subscription sales.
The raise has also been supported by existing seed investors, including major shareholder Deakin University, Significant Capital Ventures and FLAIM Systems staff investing their own after-tax cash, including Chief Executive Officer Simon Miller who has personally invested $1 million since commencing as a FLAIM Systems seed investor in 2019.