The experience of buying an off the plan apartment was the seed for Inspace, the latest member of ACS’ Harbour City Labs, says founder Justin Liang.

“I bought an apartment off-the-plan in 2016, and I had no idea what I was buying from just looking at the floor plans and brochures. I felt like people deserved to be able to visualise the space they were buying, leasing or investing in,” says Liang.

The service allows architects, building consultants and developers to import Computer Automated Design (CAD) files and create a virtual reality experience within seconds.

Once the VR experience is created, users are able to physically walk through the virtual building using high-end headsets or on desktop and mobile applications. The service also offers pre-built features such as solar and weather simulation, mark-up pen and multi-user functions.

The service is aimed at Architects, civil engineers and property owners with a $960 annual subscription that allows users to create as many VR experiences as they like. To date, the business has been funded by venture capital and private seed investors.

Inspace moves to Harbour City Labs after a stint at The Studio in the Sydney Startup Hub. Previous to that, the business had been a tenant in the Haymarket HQ coworking space where it won first prize in the inaugural 2017 Australia and New Zealand Create@Alibaba Cloud startup contest.

“The gorgeous workspace, and the supportive community team operating it” are the reasons for moving to Harbour City Labs, says Liang.

Before founding Inspace, Liang was an investor at AMP Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of AMP Financial Services, where he covered deals in AI and VR technology. While studying his Bachelor of Economics at UNSW, Liang built and sold his first music events business.

Liang says the vision behind Inspace is to resolve the $55 billion (USD) annual spend wasted fixing construction design mistakes every year.

“We deem ourselves successful every time an Inspace user tells us we enabled them to create a better space for people. Inspace is already quantifiably improving the design of buildings that will stand for many years to come.

“This includes people’s homes, hospitals, schools, workspaces, theatres, retail spaces and transport infrastructure.”