IMMERSE was founded in California in 2017 with a focus on English as a foreign language instruction, and has since grown into the most substantively research-validated VR language learning platform available on Meta Quest. Having raised $11.4 million across three funding rounds — including a $9 million Series B in March 2022 — and partnering with more than 20 universities in North America, Europe, and Japan, IMMERSE has built an unusually rigorous evidence base for its effectiveness at a time when most VR edtech is still at the proof-of-concept stage.

The platform's current offer combines live instructor-led group classes (available seven days a week) with AI-powered conversation practice available around the clock. Learners inhabit avatar form within over 30 interactive virtual scenes designed to replicate the real-world situations where the language they are learning is actually used: ordering at a restaurant, navigating an airport, handling a work meeting, making small talk at a social event. This context-first approach — practice language in the situations where you will need it, not in abstract grammar drills — is the core pedagogical distinction from flat-screen language apps.