Avantis and the lifecycle of a growth investment

Having joined as Head of Sales and Marketing before becoming CEO, Huw shares a practical view of what it takes to scale internationally while preserving the purpose behind the technology.

Q: Why does the King’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation feel like such an important milestone for Avantis?

We’ve talked about going for this award for a long, long time, so to actually receive it is incredibly special.

It gives us a chance to look back at how far we’ve come. ClassVR began with a simple question: how do we make immersive technology genuinely useful in the classroom? Today, ClassVR is used by more than two million students in over 250,000 classrooms across more than 90 countries, making it one of the world’s most widely adopted immersive learning platforms.

What I’m most proud of is that the award recognises the impact we’ve had, not simply the technology we’ve developed. We’re not putting headsets into schools because VR is exciting or because it’s the latest trend. We’re trying to help teachers explain difficult concepts differently and help students engage in ways that traditional methods don’t always allow.

Innovation, for us, has always been about solving real problems for teachers. We built an education-first platform that combines hardware, curriculum-aligned content, classroom management and professional development into one complete solution because that’s what schools need.

The King’s Award also carries significant credibility internationally. When we’re working with governments, ministries and education departments around the world, organisations need confidence in both the quality of the technology and the company behind it. The award provides an additional level of trust and validation that is incredibly valuable.

Q: What problem was Avantis trying to solve?

The challenge was that education needs something very different from consumer technology. People often associate VR with gaming, but schools need something simple, safe, manageable and proven to improve learning outcomes.

For me, engagement is the starting point, but it is not enough on its own. We have always been interested in whether this changes outcomes for students, and some of the research has been really encouraging. In El Salvador, for example, a government project gave us qualitative evidence that students were not just more engaged; they were showing improved outcomes too.

I came into edtech more than 20 years ago, when interactive whiteboards were the big classroom shift. That taught me early on that schools do not just need new technology; they need technology wrapped around teaching, support and implementation.

That thinking shaped ClassVR. It’s hardware, software, content and teacher controls wrapped together as one classroom solution.

What we’ve found over the years is that it can support such a wide range of learners. Obviously, it’s fantastic in mainstream classrooms, but some of the stories we’ve seen in SEND settings and pupil referral units are genuinely heartwarming.

I also feel strongly about what we call the empathy engine. VR can put a student in somebody else’s shoes in a way words on a page cannot, and some of the stories we’ve seen from schools have been incredibly powerful.

EduverseThrive is personal too. My daughter was diagnosed with autism two years ago, so I’ve seen how overwhelming school can be when sensory input becomes too much. Giving students a route back to regulation can make a real difference.

Q: Why was private equity investment the right next step?

By 2020, we had launched ClassVR, seen strong international interest and built a partner base across multiple markets. We knew the opportunity was there.

The reality, though, is that international growth requires investment.

International expansion is not just about selling more products. It requires people, infrastructure, systems, working capital and the confidence to invest ahead of demand.

The investment allowed our founder to realise some value while giving Avantis the capital and support to accelerate much faster than it could alone.

Q: What did Key Capital Partners bring to the business?

The timing couldn’t really have been more interesting, with Key investing during the Covid pandemic.

The Key team were fantastic through that process. They understood the opportunity, worked quickly to get the deal over the line and, from the outset, felt like people we could have very open conversations with.

Very early on, we had a clear strategy discussion about navigating unprecedented times. Being able to test our thinking with the team at Key and learn what other businesses were doing was incredibly reassuring.

Having experienced people around the table brought perspective, challenge and confidence.

Coming out of Covid, that confidence mattered. We probably went a little harder and grew faster than we would have done without their backing.

Q: How did the investment support your own journey to becoming CEO?

I joined Avantis in 2013 to lead sales and marketing and, over time, my role evolved alongside the business.

As we expanded internationally and became more complex, the organisation naturally evolved from being founder-led into a broader executive leadership team.

The investment helped that transition by helping us strengthen the executive team, invest in the business and build the structure needed for the next phase of growth.

For me personally, that period of growth ultimately prepared me to step into the CEO role when LDC invested and the business entered its next phase of expansion.

It was not an overnight handover. The business was growing and evolving, and our leadership structure evolved with it.

Q: What changed during Key’s investment period?

We accelerated, really.

We invested in people, content, systems and international reach, with the confidence to build for the future rather than simply react to demand. We also matured as an organisation. We strengthened governance, developed the board and built a business that was much more scalable internationally.

Operating globally also sharpened our thinking. Strong penetration in Poland, Romania and Italy, and implementations as remote as schools in Kathmandu, showed the appeal was real but also underlined the importance of logistics, partners and curriculum alignment.

That then created the platform for the next stage of investment with LDC.

Key helped us professionalise and accelerate. That created the platform for the next stage with LDC, which came in to help us scale again.

Q: What’s the opportunity from here?

Honestly, we’re still early on the journey. Being in more than 90 countries sounds mature, but VR adoption in schools is still low.

There’s no country in the world where more than 10% of schools are using VR. In most places it’s less than 2%.

The challenge now is not proving VR has a place in education; it is helping more schools adopt it properly and solving real problems for teachers and students.

We’re also looking at where VR and AI converge. We already have an AI tool that lets teachers create a 360-degree environment from a simple prompt, so a child can build a world around a story and step inside it.

That is what excites us. We still feel like we are only scratching the surface of what is possible.

Read about the King’s Award for Innovation 2026

King’s Award Win Recognises Avantis’ Global Impact on Classroom Learning – Key Capital Partners