Varjo

Market position

Varjo describes itself as a leader in high-resolution professional VR/XR, stating its technology is deployed in over 120 defense programs worldwide and that 25% of Fortune 100 companies used its hardware and software as of 2022. It has been recognized on Fast Company's World's Most Innovative Companies list in the VR/AR category in 2023 and 2025, and received Auggie, XR Award, CES and Finnish industry awards between 2018 and 2024.

Varjo emphasizes human-eye-class resolution passthrough and display fidelity, LiDAR-based depth sensing and ambient lighting reconstruction, a Secure Edition built in a NATO member state in its own secure manufacturing facility with TAA compliance and optional removal of radio components for classified deployments, and end-to-end integration with existing simulation software stacks and professional services.

Technology

Varjo builds high-resolution VR/XR head-mounted displays. The XR-4 delivers a passthrough camera system at 33 pixels per degree with dedicated ambient lighting reconstruction cameras, full-dome aspheric optics spanning a 120° x 105° field of view (a 50% increase over XR-3), 300 kpix extended-range LiDAR for depth awareness (eight times more powerful than XR-3), and inside-out tracking that removes the need for base stations. The Focal Edition adds a gaze-driven autofocus camera system supporting up to 51 PPD passthrough plus integrated spatial audio and noise-cancelling microphones. Headsets are tethered and compatible with Windows 10 and 11 workstations; earlier devices such as the XR-1 featured integrated eye tracking and low-latency photorealistic passthrough.

Go-to-market

Direct enterprise and defense sales supported by live demonstrations at company offices and partner experience centers, including F-18 and F-35 simulator demos; online ordering of headsets; partnerships with simulation software vendors, image generator providers and XR integrators such as Fynd Reality and VRAI.

Defense forces and government agencies, aerospace and aviation training providers, maritime operators, simulation and training system integrators, and industrial customers in engineering, design, research, healthcare and space. Named customers and partners include the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Rheinmetall, Lockheed Martin, the European Space Agency, TRU Simulation, Cole Engineering (RVCT program), Boeing, BAE Systems, Volvo Cars, Aston Martin, Kia, Lufthansa Aviation Training, the Finnish Air Force, the Slovenian Armed Forces and the Royal Australian Air Force.

Geography

Headquartered at Vuorikatu 20, Helsinki, Finland, with offices in Arlington, Virginia (USA) and Unterföhring near Munich, Germany. The company lists coverage across Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific, including Australia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, India, the UAE, Canada and Türkiye.

History

Varjo was founded in 2016 in Helsinki by four people with backgrounds at Nokia, Microsoft and NVIDIA: Urho Konttori, Niko Eiden, Klaus Melakari and Roope Rainisto. It shipped the VR-1 headset in February 2019, the VR-2 and VR-2 Pro in October 2019, the XR-1 Developer Edition (its first passthrough device) in December 2019, the XR-3 and VR-3 in December 2020, and the Varjo Aero in 2021. The XR-4 Series was announced in 2023 and refreshed in October 2025 for simulation training. The company raised a $40 million Series D in September 2022 and, per Wikipedia, has raised over $200 million in total, with a further investment reported in August 2025 from defense technology company THEON. In 2026 it announced defense training deployments with the Ukrainian Armed Forces and a partnership with VRAI.