What Crossover Labs does

Crossover Labs is a UK-based creative organization founded in 2008 that operates at the intersection of art, storytelling, and emerging technology. It delivers four interlocking service lines: curation of immersive exhibitions and conference programmes at major international film festivals (CPH:DOX, Adelaide Fringe, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Bergen IFF, EyeMyth Mumbai); intensive lab and training programmes for artists and technologists since 2008; production of VR, AR, interactive film, and XR live-performance works; and administration of funding initiatives including the £3.6 million UK Immersive Arts programme (2024–2027) and the Annwn Prize (2025). Its productions and exhibitions use computer-vision-driven interaction (facial detection, gaze and voice tracking), smartphone-based eye-tracking, AR holograms, and XR/VR pipelines to enable audience-driven branching narratives and immersive cultural storytelling. The organization serves public audiences seeking unconventional media experiences, film festivals needing expert immersive curation, artists and creative technologists seeking mentorship and funding, and cultural institutions such as Wales Millennium Centre, the British Council, and Brunel University as co-production and funding partners.

The business operates as a privately held, founder-led professional-services firm with a five-person team (Directors Tom Millen and Mark Atkin, plus Producer, Immersive Arts Producer, and Production Assistant). Revenue is generated through curation commissions, lab workshop income, production fees, and programme-management roles; no public pricing is disclosed and the £3.6M Immersive Arts fund is largely pass-through to 200+ UK artists. Geographic operations span the UK, India, Norway, Australia, Denmark, Germany, the Czech Republic, and South Africa, anchored by long-standing curation roles at CPH:DOX since 2017 and at Sheffield Doc/Fest from 2010 to 2016. Recent strategic moves include the Annwn Prize launch with Wales Millennium Centre, the Immersive Arts programme rollout, the COVID-driven pivot to Electric Dreams Online, and the co-production of "Elsewhere in India" with Antariksha Studio under the British Council's India/UK Together Season of Culture 2022-23.

Name

Crossover Labs

Legal name

Crossover Labs

Website

https://xolabs.co.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Crossover Labs is a UK-based, founder-led creative organization founded in 2008 that curates immersive exhibitions at major film festivals, runs artist training labs, produces VR/XR and interactive film works, and administers grant funding programmes for the UK immersive arts sector.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Immersive Arts Services

NAICS

Other Performing Arts Companies (711190), Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers (71151)

SIC

Services-Motion Picture & Video Tape Production (7812), Services-Allied To Motion Picture Production (7819)

akta.pro primary industry

Virtual/Hybrid Conference Production & Platform Management (THAHACAM)

akta.pro secondary industries

Virtual Training, Workshops & Masterclasses (Interactive Sessions) (MPAGAOAJ), Hybrid Conferences & Conventions (In-Person + Streamed) (MPAGAOAC), VR/AR/XR Game Studios (MPAFAAAE), Lab & Science Virtual Labs (Chemistry, Biology, Physics) (EDAFAJAE)

Keywords

• Immersive storytelling production
• VR XR film curation
• Creative technology labs
• Festival exhibition programming
• Interactive documentary production

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Exhibition Curation Services: Curation of exhibitions and conferences for public and industry audiences at film festivals and events throughout the year. Interactivity and immersiveness drive exhibitions with focus on storytelling and originality.
2. Creative Labs and Training Programs: Running labs and training initiatives since 2008, working with industry mentors and incorporating design thinking to encourage collaborations between creatives, artists and technologists.
3. Production Services: Productions ranging from archive documentaries with live musical components to virtual reality and interactive filmmaking, sparking collaborations between different disciplines.
4. Funding Program Administration: Managing the Immersive Arts funding program with £3.6million available till 2027 to fund over 200 UK-based artists across three strands: Explore (£5,000), Experiment (£20,000), and Expand (£50,000).

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Crossover Labs is a creator-and-curator studio that designs and delivers immersive storytelling projects, curates public exhibitions and industry conference programmes at international film festivals, runs intensive labs and training for artists and creative technologists, and produces original VR, XR, interactive film and documentary works. It also administers public-facing funding and award programmes — most notably the UK-wide Immersive Arts programme (£3.6 million, 2024–2027) and the Annwn Prize (£20,000, launched 2025) — supporting over 200 UK-based artists.

Product overview

Crossover Labs is a team of creators and curators specializing in the intersection of art, storytelling and technology. Their offering consists of four core service areas: Curation (exhibitions and conferences), Labs (workshops and training since 2008), Production (documentaries, VR, and interactive filmmaking), and Funding & Support (including Annwn Prize and Immersive Arts programme). The organization curates public exhibitions at major festivals including CPH:DOX Copenhagen, Adelaide Fringe, Sheffield Doc/Fest, and Bergen International Film Festival. Their productions span archive documentaries, VR experiences like Consensus Gentium and Toguna World, interactive films like RIOT!, and immersive XR performances such as Elsewhere in India.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Curation Services Crossover curates immersive exhibitions and industry conference programmes for major international film festivals and cultural events, and produces its own branded events. Programming emphasises interactivity, immersiveness, storytelling and originality across genres.
• Labs and Training Programmes Intensive, design-thinking-led workshop and training programmes that bring together creatives, artists and technologists to develop project ideas through lenses of story, audience development and routes to market. Delivered since 2008 with top industry mentors.
• Production Services Production of original creative works spanning archive documentaries with live musical components, VR, XR, and interactive filmmaking, with a focus on sparking collaborations between different disciplines such as popular musicians with film directors or technologists with artists.
• Electric Dreams An annual Crossover-produced gathering and exhibition of immersive storytelling featuring VR experiences and an industry conference with international artists and creative technologists. Premieres include Adelaide Fringe, where 'Elsewhere in India' won Best Interactive, Digital or Film in 2023.
• CPH:DOX INTER:ACTIVE Showcase and Art-Tech-Change Conference Long-running curation engagement at CPH:DOX Copenhagen encompassing the INTER:ACTIVE and VR:CINEMA immersive showcase and the Art-Tech-Change conference day, positioning Crossover as the festival's established curatorial voice for interactive and VR documentary.
• CPH:LAB Documentary Incubator CPH:DOX's talent development incubator for documentary projects exploring digital technologies, in which Crossover has been involved since 2009. Functions as a residency-style lab encouraging creative risk-taking and supporting visionaries pushing documentary boundaries.
• Off-Piste VR Storytelling Lab A multidisciplinary residential workshop held in Norway for filmmakers, developers, artists and storytellers to explore virtual reality storytelling possibilities, delivered as part of Crossover's regional lab programming.
• Immersive Arts Funding Programme A three-year, UK-wide funding programme administered by Crossover Labs, awarding grants to over 200 UK-based artists across three tiered strands (Explore at £5,000, Experiment at £20,000 and Expand at £50,000), running through 2027.
• Annwn Prize A major international prize celebrating excellence in immersive storytelling, awarding £20,000 and a bespoke residency to the winning artist or studio. Co-produced with Wales Millennium Centre, which hosts the major exhibition and showcase.
• Elsewhere in India An original XR live-performance and video-game experience set in post-cyberpunk India in 2079, co-produced with Antariksha Studio for the British Council's India/UK Together Season of Culture 2022-23. Won Best Interactive, Digital or Film at Adelaide Fringe 2023.
• Consensus Gentium An interactive AI film that uses facial, gaze and voice detection sensors to track participant responses and shape branching dystopian/utopian narrative outcomes. Won Best in XR Experience at SXSW 2023.
• Toguna World An AR/VR art installation, named after Dogon gathering places, that fuses art, photography, mixed-media collage, sculpture, film and music into a seamless immersive experience for cross-cultural conversation on possible futures. Winner of the Unity for Humanity Award 2022.
• RIOT! An interactive, live-action film using facial recognition technology to navigate a branching dystopian narrative, where the participant's detected emotional state controls story progression. Recognised as Columbia University's Digital Dozen in 2016.

Quantifiable outcome

• Festival of the Mind 2018 attracted 53,000 visitors
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability9 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and minor.

• Wales Millennium CentreflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025Joint initiative producing the Annwn Prize, a major new international award celebrating excellence in immersive storytelling. The prize awards £20,000 to the winning artist or studio and includes a bespoke residency. Wales Millennium Centre hosts the major exhibition and showcase.
• Antariksha StudiocoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2022Co-production partner for 'Elsewhere in India', a live performance and video game experience produced as part of The British Council's India/UK Together Season of Culture 2022-23.
• British CouncilcoreGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2022Partner for India/UK Together Season of Culture 2022-23, a cultural exchange programme supporting the 'Elsewhere in India' production.
• CPH:DOXcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerLong-standing partnership curating the INTER:ACTIVE and VR:CINEMA showcase at Copenhagen's International Documentary Festival as well as programming the Art-Tech-Change conference day since 2017.
• Brunel UniversityminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerDevelopment partner for RIOT! prototype, combining facial recognition technology with narrative storytelling.
• The National TheatreminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerDevelopment partner for RIOT! prototype production.
• QuicksandcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership to create the VR Storytellers Guild platform for Indian creative professionals, with labs in Bangalore (2017) and Mumbai (2018).

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• teamLab: teamLab is an interdisciplinary art collective producing large-scale immersive digital art installations globally. While more commercial and venue-based than Crossover Labs, it operates in the same art-technology-storytelling intersection with museum/festival distribution.

Emerging players

• Kaleidoscope: Kaleidoscope is an immersive art platform and fund that supports and showcases VR/AR creators. Comparable to Crossover Labs' lab/residency and funding-administration model (Immersive Arts, Annwn Prize) for emerging immersive artists.

Direct peers

• Meow Wolf: Meow Wolf is an immersive arts and entertainment company producing permanent large-scale interactive art installations. While more commercial and venue-based, it shares Crossover Labs' artist-led model of immersive storytelling at the intersection of art and technology.
• Atlas V: Atlas V is a VR/AR/XR content studio producing narrative-driven immersive experiences and distributing them internationally. It directly parallels Crossover Labs' production work in interactive VR storytelling and its global festival distribution approach.
• Tribeca Immersive: Tribeca Immersive is the XR/immersive programming at the Tribeca Festival, showcasing VR and interactive storytelling. Comparable to Crossover Labs as a festival curation model for immersive narrative content.
• Sundance New Frontier: Sundance New Frontier is the XR/immersive programming strand at the Sundance Film Festival, curating VR, AR, and mixed reality works. Directly comparable to Crossover Labs' curation role at CPH:DOX, Adelaide Fringe, and Sheffield Doc/Fest.
• Innerspace VR: Innerspace VR is a French VR/XR production studio focused on narrative immersive experiences and location-based entertainment. Comparable to Crossover Labs in producing cinematic VR with storytelling emphasis and festival-led distribution.
• Felix & Paul Studios: Felix & Paul Studios is an immersive storytelling studio producing VR films and interactive experiences shown at major festivals like Sundance, Tribeca, and Venice. They share Crossover Labs' focus on narrative-driven immersive content and award-circuit distribution.
• Venice VR Expanded: Venice VR Expanded is the immersive VR strand at the Venice Film Festival, presenting interactive XR works. Analogous to Crossover Labs' role at CPH:DOX and Sheffield Doc/Fest as a curator of immersive narrative at A-list festivals.

Others

• British Council: The British Council is a UK cultural relations organization that funds international arts programming. As a partner on the India/UK Together Season of Culture 2022-23 and a likely counterpart on UK-funded immersive arts programmes, it is a comparable public arts intermediary.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/crossover-labs/?originalSubdomain=uk
• Instagraminstagram.com/crossoverlabs/?hl=en
• Xx.com/xolabs
• Facebookfacebook.com/xolabs

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Crossover Labs