THE STARTUP BEHIND BUILDING KENYA’S VIRTUAL REALITY INDUSTRY
BlackRhino VR is a virtual reality production company specializing in creating cinematic, immersive experiences for different companies and organizations. It focuses on commercial and non-commercial work. The commercial work involves creating branded immersive experiences for various corporate organizations while the non-commercial work is about having a positive impact on society and changing perceptions. In 2014-2015 it was a boutique film production company. The corporate uptake for VR is increasing with emphasis on creating immersive brand messages targeted to the millennials cascading over some facets of the economy. Challenges such as connectivity should be overcome for VR to be a reality in Africa. Countries such as South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana and Egypt have vibrant VR communities. A lot of sensitization, partnerships and investments was done before VR can become an industry. Demystification of VR and trying to give an understanding of VR and how relevant it can be in different facets of society. Capacity building and benchmarking. It has been able to change the mindsets of small and large corporations on how they perceive VR leading to a tremendous corporate uptake of VR as a communication tool. Contrast VR team was very professional in articulating the deliverables and supported it where necessary. Unfortunately, the production dates fell during the post-election crisis having sporadic violence. Overwhelming support was received from the Contrast VR even as the shooting days kept being postponed and after finishing, work on post-production began.