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VR and mixed-reality vocational simulations help schools train learners on costly hands-on skills.
~100 US schools / ~500 installs + 250 customers abroad · largest contract $350K · founder-owned after a 2021 investor buyout
A reseller can open a region, but the buyer understands the product only after putting on the headset.
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Skillveri sells virtual and mixed-reality simulations for vocational training, including welding and spray painting. The software runs on Meta Quest or Pico headsets and can pair with physical tool-shaped accessories. Co-founder and CEO Sabari described a customer base spanning high schools, community colleges, and industry, with schools as the main US segment. He reported about 100 US schools and 500 installations, plus 250 other customers globally. The company began in 2012 building hardware, raised a $1.2 million Series A in 2016, and pivoted toward software shortly before the pandemic. He said the pandemic pushed revenue close to zero because products could not ship; the promoters bought out investors in 2021. He reported approximately $500,000 revenue in 2024 and a run rate of about $1.5 million in 2025; the largest contract is $350,000. The company uses around 10 US resellers, with commissions from 3% to 20%. He described software subscriptions starting around $4,000 and typical school contracts at $15,000–$20,000 per year.
For Skillveri, the first customers need to experience the training simulation, because the product’s value is difficult to communicate through a feature list alone.
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“…contracts or 5 million per year contracts currently it's at uh 350k uh for the largest contracts so we would like to take it up to to above a million…”
4:15 · hear it in the video“You were pivoting and then you scaled back up with your software product and hardware product in 2024 to 500k of revenue.”
10:22 · hear it in the videoData credibility: Co-founder and CEO Sabari reported the figures himself: about $500K revenue in 2024 and a ~$1.5M run rate in 2025 (he confirmed the host's 100 schools × ~$15K estimate as "where we're currently at"), ~100 US schools, ~500 installations, 250 customers abroad, a $350K largest contract and a 60/40 software-to-hardware mix. The $1.2M Series A (2016) and the 2021 buyout at about half of invested capital are also his account. Nothing was shown on screen or audited.
For a VR vocational training product, the first dollar is most likely to arrive through a paid school pilot or a limited software subscription after instructors see learners practice safely.
Skillveri’s expansion loop depends on a product that is easier to understand after someone tries it. The founder said prospective buyers often could not distinguish it from older competitors until they wore the headset and experienced mixed reality.
An education hardware product can face long quiet periods because schools plan around budgets, curriculum calendars, and procurement approvals. Skillveri’s founder described a pandemic shock that drove revenue close to zero when the company could not ship its earlier hardware.
Skillveri sells trade-skill simulations, such as welding and industrial spray painting, that run on off-the-shelf Meta Quest or Pico headsets costing roughly $300–$500. Learners practice in mixed reality: they see a virtual workpiece in front of them while still seeing the room, and the wireless headset lets them move around. Beginners use the standard controllers; schools can add Skillveri's own tool-shaped accessories, a welding gun or a spray gun, for about $2,500 each as a one-time purchase. Every attempt is scored, which turns practice into a game. In a typical classroom one student wears the headset while four or five others watch on screens and take turns every 30–40 minutes, each trying to beat the last score. Licenses are tied to devices rather than users, so one headset can serve a whole class. The content is built in Unity. Sabari's next product is AI grading that scores real welds and paint jobs objectively once students move from the simulator to the school shop or a job site.
Revenue is roughly 60% software and 40% hardware-plus-software packages. The entry product is a software subscription from about $4,000 a year that powers up to five headsets; a typical school pays $15,000–$20,000 a year depending on the district and the trades it covers. Advanced simulator sets sell for up to about $25,000 each with hardware and a perpetual software license, and the welding and spray-gun accessories are one-time $2,500 purchases. Competitors mostly sell one-time simulators costing upward of $35,000, so a subscription starting at $4,000 is the wedge. The largest contract is $350,000. About 100 US schools, roughly 500 installations, plus 250 customers elsewhere put the company at about a $1.5 million run rate in 2025, up from about $500,000 in 2024. In the US most buyers are high-school and middle-school career and technical education (CTE) programs, plus some community colleges and only four or five industrial customers; in Europe and Asia, industry buys more. Resellers earn 3%–20% commission depending on how much help they need from the company.
Skillveri builds its simulations in Unity and stays hardware-agnostic, so schools buy headsets from Amazon or elsewhere and load the software. That choice came from pain. The company started in 2012 building its own bulky hardware in India, and when the pandemic stopped shipments, revenue fell close to zero; its India-focused impact investors wanted out, and the founders bought them back in 2021 for about half of what they had put in. Today the company makes only small accessories, sold once at about $2,500. The cost lines that matter are content development per trade, accessory manufacturing and shipping, reseller commissions of 3%–20%, and the workshops the team runs to train resellers on demos. Sabari works from Dallas when he is in the US and notes that flying to customers does not pay off on a $5,000 recurring deal, which is why the company shifted from direct selling to resellers. Our read: software margins should be high, but hardware bundles, travel and channel commissions can eat much of a small school deal, so price accessories and reseller tiers with that in mind.
Copy the pricing wedge. When incumbents sell $35,000 one-time simulators, a $4,000-a-year subscription on consumer headsets lets a school say yes without a capital budget, and recurring software then becomes most of revenue. Copy the device-based license that lets a whole class share one headset, and the scored, turn-taking format that makes practice competitive. Copy the channel lesson as well: buyers assumed the product was like older simulators until they put the headset on, so resellers who run live demos in their own region were worth paying 3%–20% commissions, with higher rates for those who need less help. Change the starting point. Skillveri spent years and a $1.2 million Series A on its own hardware before pivoting; a new entrant should start software-only on Quest headsets, with one trade and one region's CTE programs, and add accessories only once schools ask for them. Plan cash around school budget cycles, and line up two or three reference classrooms before recruiting resellers, so every demo can point to a school already using it.
School budgets come first: CTE programs buy on fiscal-year cycles, and a typical deal of $5,000–$20,000 a year leaves little room for long, travel-heavy sales efforts, which is why Skillveri leans on resellers. Channel risk follows. About 10 resellers cover 35 states, so losing one or two can stall a region, and resellers who skip hands-on demos make the product look like older competitors. Hardware is still exposure even after the pivot: the pandemic drove revenue close to zero when the company could not ship its own devices, and headset makers can change or discontinue models at any time. Large, established simulator vendors already have relationships with schools and industry. The growth targets are steep, from about 100 US schools today to 2,000 in two years and 8,000 in five, and Sabari says he would not sell for $4 million today. Finally, the next product, AI grading of real welds and paint jobs, is not built yet, so treat it as an option rather than a moat.
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