Transforming professional training: the power of immersive scenarios. How Ukrainian startup Sensorama Lab works
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In our recurring Who Are These People segment, Vector offers founders an opportunity to discuss their projects, covering aspects such as their products, marketing strategies, monetisation, investments, and plans. The focus this time is on Sensorama Lab, a Ukrainian startup developing software solutions. The company offers a range of digital solutions, including XR training apps, 360 video content, VR defence training, and autonomous uncrewed aerial vehicle mission software.
Their flagship product is Sensorama XR Training, a virtual training platform focused on enhancing professional capabilities.
Vector’s editor-in-chief Yuliia Tkach interviewed Serhii Tereshchenko, CEO and co-founder, about the product’s features, promotion, investments, and plans.
Conception
Sensorama has two founders:
- Serhii Tereshchenko, CEO. His 15-year career highlights include extensive work in sales, building effective teams, delivering training for business owners, strategic planning, financial management, and the overall intricacies of running a business. Beginning this year, Serhii has also taken on the role of co-founder at Blue Arrow, a startup developing autonomous solutions for aircraft operating in areas with no GPS signal and active communication jamming.
- Kyrylo Pokutnyi, CSO. Drawing on more than 15 years in development, he has overseen over 100 project launches. He offers expertise in client consultation across technology, immersive technologies, and AI.
Born and raised in Kyiv, the two co-founders are alumni of the same school. Their collaboration dates back 15 years to the founding of Touch Me, a company focused on introducing innovative business solutions, particularly touch tables. The company is no longer active.
According to Serhii, the inspiration to work with immersive technologies struck after their working visit to the 2010 World Expo exhibition in Shanghai. «The iPad arrived in 2010, Palmer Luckey successfully crowdfunded the Oculus Rift on Kickstarter in 2012, and phone-based cardboard VR grew in popularity. Then, 2017 marked the advent of AR as we know it. The market’s swift expansion and evident potential led us to establish Sensorama Lab in 2017.
According to Markets and Markets, the global AR and VR market in education was valued at $3.8 billion in 2023, with projections to reach $14,2 billion by 2028».
Currently, the team includes about 30 professionals, primarily the development team, with roles such as CTO, Unity developers, backend and frontend engineers, 3D artists, QA engineers, and project managers. Plans include hiring developers to expand the CMS product’s functionality and bringing on board a product manager.
Product and audience
Sensorama XR Training is at the core of Sensorama Lab’s offering. These are simulators designed to train employees in professional skills, catering to large companies that require high-quality staff training. The very first product they developed were hard skills simulators, intended for use in the energy and large manufacturing industries.
«We designed training simulators for companies like DTEK, Ferrexpo, and Energoatom. However, true scalability for these scenarios is hampered by the requirement to create a literal digital twin of each specific work or production environment, leading to extensive customisation efforts. In addition to the core scenario, the platform offers access to an instructor module designed for user and scenario administration, and data insights.
The current emphasis is on developing scenarios for soft skills training. A distinct product in our portfolio, created for a pharmaceutical company, facilitates therapy education via virtual patient engagement.
This scenario can be fully customised by the end-user, featuring various character types and environments, with all medical data adjustable within the administrator dashboard. This product provides resource-friendly scalability. Therefore, we are advancing the product by incorporating new functions, realistic dialogues with characters and additional training scenarios».
To summarise, the client’s product journey involves these steps:
- the Sensorama team receives a brief from the client;
- the Q&A phase;
- a breakdown of customisation for the client and the licence cost;
- budget approval.
If the client is a manufacturing company, the next step involves an on-site visit to scan the facility and its equipment. We then begin development, divided into phases:
- alpha (basic 3D scene prototype and core interactive elements, potentially including a training scenario or training module);
- beta (the full version, including training, exam, and onboarding modules);
- final (with all edits and bug corrections).
The client delivers feedback after every phase to ensure the training scenario closely mirrors reality. We then proceed to technically support the client and apply updates as required. If the customisation is minimal, as in the pharma sector where we use our pre-existing library of 3D characters and scenes, it only involves the necessary development and then ongoing maintenance», — the CEO points out.
Their client base includes over 10 corporate entities. Their primary clients are large corporations with over 5,000 employees, a training/HR department and a need to optimise effective staff training processes.
The company targets Ukraine and the EU as its main markets, having already acquired Servier, a client based in France.
Business model and marketing strategy
It’s a classic B2B model: the startup charges clients a monthly user subscription fee, plus an additional fee for customised scenarios. The current subscription price is $30.
To promote their business, they largely rely on LinkedIn, Clutch, the Seeds of Bravery, and participate in industry expos and forums.
Investments
No investor funds have been drawn by the startup; instead, it has been financed through the founders’ personal contributions, contract proceeds, and grants. Serhii explains: «For an extended period, Sensorama operated as a service company, channelling its own resources into product development».
Overall, the company has attracted about $160,000 in grants and roughly $400,000 in personal investments from its founders.
Plans
To expand functionality of its soft skills simulator, the team is currently undertaking development, having received €60,000 from Seeds of Bravery.
They plan to acquire at least two more corporate clients from pharma and retail within the upcoming year. «Globally, we envision transforming specialist preparation across critical fields, from medical to manufacturing, by offering immersive scenarios that enable the safe practice of complex procedures in digital copies of real work settings».
Sensorama’s team are members of the L’Oréal Startup Hub 2.0, a support programme by UNIT.City & L’Oréal Ukraine L'Oréal Paris' parent company condemned Russia's war against Ukraine and announced the suspension of investments and sales in Russia. However, the L'Oréal Paris factory in Kaluga continues to operate and pay taxes to the Russian budget. for Ukrainian startups. As the exclusive media partner for the programme, Vector is creating a series of materials on the participating startups.
The Vector editorial board stands behind Ukrainian innovation. Publications presented are not an endorsement or promotion of any partner’s views.
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