San Francisco-based virtual surgical training and assessment company Osso VR recently announced that it has procured an impressive $27 million in series B funding.
The funding was led by GSR Ventures, with additional support from Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Signalfire, OCA Ventures, Leslie Ventures, Scrum Ventures and Anorak Ventures. Founded in 2004, tech company investor GSR Ventures focuses on AI (artificial intelligence) healthcare tech, and enterprise software and platforms. The firm is comprised of experts in medicine and enterprise and today has over $3 billion in management.
The investment will allow Osso VR to expand its worldwide Immersive Surgical Training. Osso’s validated virtual reality (VR) platform combines high fidelity and cinematic quality visuals to promote increased efficiency and improved outcomes in surgery.
The company was founded in 2016 and is headed by Harvard and UCLA trained orthopedic surgeon Justin Barad, M.D. The Osso VR team includes expert backgrounds in med tech, clinical care and virtual reality technology development. Osso’s VR’s surgical platform aims to provide on-demand training that is precise, effective, evidence-based, repeatable and measurable, supporting surgical proficiency and highly effective training in new and emerging techniques and technology. The company has reported rapid growth in 2020 as the pandemic caused increased demands for virtual training.
Osso VR has coordinated with medical industry leaders like Stryker Corporation, Johnson & Johnson and Smith & Nephew plc among others in developing its cutting edge platforms. “Osso VR is positioned to transform how surgeons are trained on new devices and surgical procedures,” said GSR Ventures partner Sunny Kumar, M.D. “The Osso platform’s level of immersion provides an experience that mirrors the operating room in a manner more efficient, more accessible, and more effective than any surgical training platform that’s come before.”
Osso is currently home to the largest global surgical training library, touting over 120 training modules in over 10 specialties, most recently including trainings in specialized areas like interventional procedures, endoscopy and orthopedic care. The company’s medical illustration team is also the world’s largest, with professionals trained at Microsoft, Apple, Industrial Light & Magic and Electronic Arts bringing the highest level of anatomical accuracy and cinematic-level visual accessibility to each training experience. Around 22,000 minutes of Osso VR training per month have been utilized, close to 30,000 training in total—with recent peer-reviewed studies indicating a 230 to 306 percent in improved surgical performance compared to traditional training.
Osso’s Remote Training programs additionally offer providers and students the unique opportunity to train with medical professionals across the globe. The training platforms are available in multiple languages and are being used in over 20 countries.
Barad told OTW, “Osso VR plans to use its new funding to continue to expand its team, invest more in its product, and collect clinical data to understand impact on patient outcomes. This includes growth to 150-200 employees by the end of year, adding artists and medical illustrators to scale content creation, and adding engineers and product specialists to enable us to address additional specialties. The platform will evolve to have even more sophistication both to the realism of the training experiences and sophistication of our assessment like incorporating additional 3D motion analysis.”
