In January 14, 2020 – California-based Embodied Labs, which provides a platform that uses virtual reality to assist with training for the aging care workforce, has announced that it has received seed funding of USD $3.2 million. Funding was led by age-tech investor, Ziegler Link·Age Fund, and co-led by immersive tech investor, The Venture Reality Fund, as well as SustainVC, WXR Fund, and ETF@JFFLabs.
Carrie Shaw, founder and CEO of Embodied Labs, said: “In addition to being oversubscribed in our initial investment round, we are thrilled with our unique mix of investors who have proven expertise across the convergence of aging, emerging technology, social impact, female empowerment and the need to transform our workforce training methods in health and aging care.”
Founded in 2016, Embodied Labs uses the immersive experience of VR to put healthcare professionals and family caregivers into the body and mind of those who are challenged with lifespan aging issues: cognitive decline such as Alzheimer’s, age-related vision and hearing loss, neurodegenerative disease such as Parkinson’s and Lewy body dementia, and end-of-life decisions. Its training mission is twofold: enhance person-centered care through intellectual and instinctual behavior change and help long-term care providers recruit and retain a quality caregiver workforce.
“One of the target attributes we look for in our investment portfolio companies is a differentiated solution with broad market potential,” said John Hopper, Chief Investment Officer, Ziegler Link·age Fund. “We are leading this investment round for Embodied Labs because it delivers a unique solution across our limited partners spectrum of senior living, home care, hospice and hospitals to train a workforce that spans four generations. Using this innovative VR tool to attract and retain valuable talent puts providers ahead of the curve operationally and with their customers.”
Embodied Labs stated that the age-tech market is projected to be $40 billion by 2025 (source not given) and according to a Goldman Sachs report, VR in US healthcare will capture 12.5 percent of this market. Commenting on Embodied Labs’ placement in the VR healthcare market, Marco DeMiroz, co-founder and General Partner of The Venture Reality Fund, said: “Embodied Labs is at the intersection of immersive tech and age-tech innovation to establish its leadership in this huge market opportunity.” He added, “What attracted us to invest in Embodied Labs is its unique focus in VR to deliver transformative training in a turnkey tech-sophisticated package based on its comprehensive and innovative platform that is already receiving significant adoption by a traditionally tech-phobic long-term care.”
Embodied Labs has also been selected as one of twelve finalists to present at the Health 2.0 VentureConnect event held during the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco this week. The event gathers startups and venture capitalists in an exclusively curated showcase of the convergence of healthcare and technology.
Image credit: Embodied Labs
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Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.