Late last week the company received a major boost when it was told it had won a "People's Choice" award at the annual International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) Expo in Florida.

The company is best known for a game that pits friends in a battle against Zombies, but has also developed an exploratory mystery game and a group puzzle-based game, which took out the prestigious award.

"This is going to be invaluable for us, as it is a global show where we spoke to people from Russia, Saudi Arabia, eastern and western Europe and also South America as well as the US, so it is a huge deal," Mr Ruse said.

"About 98 per cent of the people that go to the show are buyers, and we got exceptional approval ratings from a crowd that is tough to please and our booth was really busy, which was fantastic."

In Zero Latency's system players carry their computer in a military-style backpack, and can move freely in auditoriums. Supplied

Broad appeal

Mr Ruse said the demographics of people interested in playing in VR was pleasingly broad. The average age of players is about 30 and skews slightly towards men, but he said a large number of women and older players had come to its Melbourne warehouse to try it out.

An early teething problem with many VR systems, which are used in the home or with a smartphone, is the propensity for users to feel nausea.


Mr Ruse said this was caused by a disconnection between what the body is experiencing physically and what it is experiencing from a sensory perspective. However, this is all but eradicated in its venues.

"If I am playing a game on a virtual reality headset and I'm running, but in real life I am stationary, then it triggers the same reaction that in human evolution stopped us from being poisoned. Your body recognises that your senses are out of whack and decides it needs to purge the contents of the stomach," he said.

"Zero Latency's system matches your movements one to one, so not only does it feel massively immersive, it also eliminates all motion sickness."

Carthona Capital partner Dean Dorrell, who has been a backer of Zero Latency since the angel investment stage, said he was keen to up his firm's investment as the performance of the company and imminent growth potential was very bright.

"The business is doing fantastically well, there wasn't any immediate need to raise more cash, but it has done so to fuel its growth globally," he said.

"They are seeing more demand for systems than they can currently cope with, so they need to scale up."