LA JOLLA, Calif., May 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The world is in an unprecedented time of uncertainty, and businesses and organizations are under enormous pressure to find new ways to work and meet. To help provide continuation of business, VirBELA is helping people around the world communicate, collaborate and meet without travel or physical contact. VirBELA’s immersive technology platform for business, events and education connects people wherever they are located.
A recent Gartner CFO study points to a future reduction in physical workspace and an increase in remote work. Almost a quarter of respondents said they will move at least 20 percent of their on-site employees to remote work permanently; 13 percent already have cut real estate expenses with another 9 percent planning cuts in the months to come.VirBELA works with companies and organizations to create virtual spaces such as team suites, custom workspaces, entire campuses and event venues that provide cost savings as a result of higher productivity and no brick-and-mortar offices or commute hassles.In the past three months, VirBELA sales grew by more than 600 percent and traffic to its Open Campus increased 450 percent. The company received strong interest from a variety of industries and organizations, including top global consulting firms, some of the largest banks in North America, universities, well-known hardware and software companies around the world as well as corporate departments such as events, human resources, recruiting, CIO management and sales.VirBELA also has seen a sizable uptick in demand for large events seeking a virtual alternative. One organization that recently entrusted the VirBELA platform is Laval Virtual, a top event organizer for the augmented reality and virtual reality industry. More than 6,600 people from 110 countries attended Laval Virtual World 2020, which took place in their private event campus, hosting sessions, business meetings, an awards ceremony, as well as fun activities and challenges.“Our partnership with VirBELA was born from a thorough research of all the existing platforms for remote events, and they had exactly what could meet all of our needs: a very accessible solution, fun and well-thought interactions, great conference and meeting configurations as well as significant possibilities of concurrent connections,” said Laurent Chrétien, CEO of Laval Virtual. “We look forward to doing more virtual events, and helping each other make communities thrive in these virtual environments.”Companies are looking to the future and how they will operate and adjust when business continues. Virtual working offers an alternative for remote employees, giving them a sense of physical space and social interaction that is often missing when working remotely.“VirBELA enables remote employees to work in a virtual office or people to gather in a virtual event space that allows casual interaction and the serendipitous meaningful collisions of a physical location, which are a huge driver of engagement,” said VirBELA President Alex Howland. “By developing a remote-first culture, companies give employees the benefit of working from home and making a positive impact on the environment, while companies reduce expenditures and are able to hire the most talented people regardless of physical location.”The first cloud-based real estate brokerage, eXp Realty, partnered with VirBELA in April 2016 to provide an immersive, virtual experience for agents and staff to communicate and collaborate. eXp is now one of the fastest-growing, global residential real estate companies and was named the No. 1 independent real estate brokerage in the United States by REAL Trends in 2019.“We are fortunate to have a tool like VirBELA that others also can use to continue their business,” said eXp Realty CEO Jason Gesing. “As a virtual brokerage, we don’t have physical offices and all the trappings that come along with that. VirBELA has allowed us to grow rapidly from 900 to more than 28,000 agents around the world in less than four years. VirBELA has allowed us to offer unparalleled earning, learning and growth opportunities to real estate professionals globally. Our agents and staff collaborate, build community and get support in our virtual office as well as tap into virtual tools to help agents serve their clients, which will help minimize person-to-person contact while still conducting business to keep transactions moving.”Gesing added, “VirBELA extends well beyond real estate and into other service professions, whether in times of crisis such as COVID-19 or in the ordinary course of business, for forward-thinking organizations causing disruption in industries of their own.”About VirBELA and eXp World HoldingsVirBELA is an eXp World Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXPI) company, which also owns eXp Realty.VirBELA is an immersive technology platform for business, events and education. Its modern, cloud-based environment provides a virtual experience for workers, attendees, students and more to communicate, collaborate, meet and socialize. For more information, visit the company’s website at virbela.com.eXp Realty, The Real Estate Cloud Brokerage, is the fastest-growing, global residential real estate company with more than 28,000 agents in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. As a subsidiary of a publicly traded company, eXp Realty uniquely offers real estate professionals within its ranks opportunities to earn eXp World Holdings stock for production and contributions to overall company growth.Media Relations Contact:
Alex Howland
President, VirBELA
ahowland@virbela.comInvestor Relations Contact:
Raymond “RJ” Jones
Executive Vice President, finance and growth, eXp World Holdings
360.761.4393
investors@expworldholdings.com
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