What does WE ARE VR do?

Source: https://www.wearevrjozi.org/ (scraped 2026-07-13; refreshed 2026-08-18)

Many of us are building experiences in VR & AR, and most of us have been doing it alone. We’re the only ones at our companies who understand what a spatial anchor is. We’ve burned weekends debugging Unity projects with no one to call. We’ve spent thousands of rands on hardware that sits on shelves. We hammer ChatGPT & Claude for generating shaders that don’t compile. We scroll Discord servers and Reddit threads looking for answers from strangers in different time zones. It can be isolating, expensive, and slow.

WE ARE BUILDING

We aren’t just sitting back and watching these technologies; we’re experimenting with hardware, building tools, sharing breakthroughs, and routing paid work and collaborations through each other.

Some of us are architecting businesses and shaping careers that serve as the bedrock for employment and high-tech skills development in our community. Some of us create art that asks profound and sometimes uncomfortable questions about ourselves and the times we find ourselves in. Some of us are passionate about fostering solidarity among workers, building this industry, and uniting for fair conditions and a prosperous future for all of us. Some of us explore the science & engineering of immersive technologies — the solutions required to simulate experience itself.

The WE ARE VR community is a place where we ask: “What do we want these technologies to do for our society?”

If you’re building in XR and tired of figuring it out alone, you’re one of us. We’re a community of XR creators — developers, designers, artists, and founders actively working in immersive tech who want collaborations, shared resources, and other people who actually understand the problems we’re solving.

WE ARE INVESTED

The African XR market presents a rare convergence of opportunity and impact. While global investors compete to differentiate their portfolios through meaningful philanthropy, the continent’s immersive technology sector offers something scarce: genuine first-mover advantage with measurable social returns.

The paradox facing our industry — a shortage of skilled talent alongside limited employment pathways — isn’t a barrier, it’s an investment thesis. By funding ecosystem development rather than isolated projects, we’re not just backing technology; we’re building the infrastructure that creates both the workforce and the market demand simultaneously.

This is where capital doesn’t just chase returns — it creates the conditions for them. The question isn’t whether Africa’s XR economy will mature, but whether your investment will be remembered as the catalyst that made it possible.

The WE ARE VR ecosystem is the beginning of an effective yet ethical foundation for an emerging industry.

Core activities

We are a community. We’re about growing together. Coordination nurtures growth. We seek to learn, experiment, and share our findings with the group.

1. Daily news — Primarily through WhatsApp & Signal: hardware releases, industry news, new open-source and software toolsets, and experimental breakthroughs. Live news feed also on the homepage (/#today).
2. Weekly insight — Insights posts on VR/AR basics for newcomers and practitioner realisations — see /insights (markdown in content/blog/; Compass Publish for new posts).
3. Monthly meetups — Mix Cocktail Bar, Rosebank; last Thursdays from 18:00 CAT when nights are live; demos of local immersive projects and talks from creators.
4. Yearly collaborations — Fak'ugesi festival, Africa XR Report, Africa XR Hackathon, Afro Geek Fest, UJ Technopreneurship Centre, Tshimologong Precinct Workshops, and more.

Interest groups and skill sharing

For the technically inclined: virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), headsets / haptics / smartglasses, 3D design & development, immersive mobile apps, open-source initiatives & tools, AI & automation, blockchain solutions, immersive audio & music; engines Unity, Unreal, and Godot.

Strategic knowledge: sales, production, directing, strategy, processes, hiring, marketing, publicity, outsourcing, and collaborations — all the things needed to make an industry grow and mature.

Theoretical: art, academia, activism, ethics, and the cognitive/social impact of immersive technologies.

With the shared goal of creating world-class immersive experiences, WE ARE VR exists to empower us to explore, flourish, and thrive in this field, together.

Opportunities board

Africa XR gigs, speaker calls, mentorships, and consulting live at /opportunities on this site (replaces the old Wix jobs page).