Multi-million pound investment to help create innovative and scaleable tech to treat MSK disorders
Digital therapeutics company Kaia Health has announced a £6.4 million funding round, led by Optum Ventures, to address the rising costs of treating musculoskeletal disorders (MSK).
Kaia Health has developed a smartphone-based approach for managing a range of chronic conditions, with its product focused on MSK conditions such as chronic back pain.
The investment by Optum Ventures will help Kaia Health address the rising costs of treating MSK-related conditions, the difficulty patients have in accessing gold-standard treatment, and the need for innovative, scaleable and cost-effective technology solutions to confront this issue.
The company’s 2D motion tracking technology enables users to get real-time feedback on their exercise performance using their smartphone’s camera, which, when taken together with the platform’s psychological and education support, has been proven to outperform conventional therapy.
“The investment from Optum Ventures will allow us to explore integration opportunities throughout the complete patient treatment journey,” said Konstantin Mehl, Founder and CEO of Kaia Health.
Optum Ventures’ investment will be used to extend Kaia Health’s platform into other chronic indications and expand the supporting clinical evidence base.
“Kaia Health has taken a technology-led approach to create digital therapeutics that will make treatment more accessible to patients who need it,” said Heather Roxborough, Partner at Optum Ventures. “We believe Kaia Health’s digital therapeutic solutions will benefit those suffering from MSK disorders and are excited about its application in other indications.”
With three peer-reviewed clinical studies, including a randomised controlled trial recently published in NPJ Digital Medicine, Kaia Health has demonstrated its commitment to creating validated digital therapeutics and has additional clinical studies ongoing in the United States.
Optum Ventures is the independent venture fund of Optum, an information and technology-enabled health services business dedicated to helping make the health system work better for everyone, and part of UnitedHealth Group.
Optum Ventures invests in digital health companies that use data and insights to help improve people’s access to health care services and how care is delivered and paid for, and that make the health care system more reliable and easier to navigate.