InContext Solutions, Chicago, closed a $15.2 million funding round led by Intel Capital and Beringea to help the provider of web-based virtual reality (VR) shopper and retail solutions accelerate sales and marketing efforts, expand its geographic footprint and improve its VR product portfolio, including further development of solutions for head-mounted devices.

“This latest round of funding gives us strong strategic backers who share our vision of even more robust, fully-immersive virtual reality solutions for retail,” says Mark Hardy, chief executive officer. “We have long been a leader in web-based VR, and this investment allows us to aggressively develop our VR platform, further lowering costs and improving speed and revenue for our clients.”

InContext Solutions helps retailers and manufacturers more rapidly visualize, test and deploy new retail concepts using hyper-realistic simulations of actual retail environments. Available through InContext’s ShopperMX VR platform, clients can create optimal in-store shopper experiences.

“Virtual reality is moving beyond the gaming community with use cases rising up across many different industries,” says Doug Fisher, senior vice president and general manager of the software and services group at Intel Corp., Santa Clara, Calif. “InContext Solutions has already had significant impact on virtual reality for the retail and manufacturing industries. We are excited to see how virtual reality solutions, such as InContext Solutions, based on Intel Architecture, are poised to transform industries in more immersive, interactive ways.”

Intel and InContext Solutions recently announced a collaboration to develop new VR solutions for the retail ecosystem.