Ubisoft and Galilei, a Concordia University company, will together unveil a new incubation program for augmented and mixed reality companies called XR:MTL.

The factory will work with companies to develop applications with market potential, said Galilei’s cofounder Stéphane Marceau, who previously cofounded Montreal wearable technology company OMsignal.

It will bring together corporations, academia and startups to catalyze and accelerate open and commercially targeted innovation, including the creation of new ventures and novel experiences across industries. This will be achieved through joint development projects, product piloting partnerships, and knowledge sharing activities,” Marceau told MTLinTECH in an email.

XR:MTL will be hosted at Concordia. It will focus on apps in entertainment, healthcare, aerospace, education and other industries

“A new and more mature wave of experiences is emerging,” added Marceau, Galilei’s CEO. “XR technology will find its way into our everyday lives and impact the future of work in many industries. Montreal’s combination of world-class research, technical and creative talent positions us to become a global leader for XR.”

Ubisoft, meanwhile, will construct “L’Atelier XR”, a space inside the factory aimed at collaborating with the Montreal XR ecosystem.

“Ubisoft has been investing in Virtual Reality for several years and has emerged as a world leader in the field of XR entertainment,” said Deborah Papiernik, Vice-President, New Business at Ubisoft. “We have developed and championed core technological advancements to bring XR closer to the public. For Ubisoft, XR:MTL represents a great platform to build new services and commercial applications.”

XR:MTL has already built partnerships with Facebook’s Oculus and Montreal-based XR leaders like Triotech and D-Box. It has also hand-picked several startups, including Aperium, Ova, and The Phenomena.

To further XR:MTL’s mission for open innovation, a partnership with Prompt Quebec - a non-profit consortium that facilitates collaboration and financing between businesses and the public research sector - has also been formed to support projects enabling the future of XR on 5G networks.

Galilei, the Concordia University offshoot helping to deliver XR:MTL, describes itself as a new company that creates “innovation collisions between corporations, startups and academia,” building “communities and open platforms where innovators converge to produce disruptive market innovation.”