Kaia Health successfully closes a €23 million Series B financing round. The lead investor is, among others, the healthcare VC Optum Ventures.
Kaia Health, a Munich-based startup offering digital therapies, like several other Munich-based health startups, can announce a successfully completed financing round despite—or perhaps because of?—the Corona crisis. The Series B financing round of €23.12 million (US$26 million) was led by the lead investors Optum Ventures, Idinvest and Capital300 and supported by existing investors, Balderton Capital and Heartcore Capital, as well as Symphony Ventures (the investment fund of world number one golf professional Rory McIlroy). In total, Kaia Health has 50 million US dollars since its founding recorded.
How Kaia Health plans to use the funding
Kaia Health plans to use the funding to further develop its digital therapy solutions for conditions such as osteoarthritis and back pain. The healthcare startup also aims to develop new solutions for other conditions where digitally delivered multimodal therapy is also effective, such as the chronic lung disease COPD. In collaboration with experts from various medical disciplines, the company, founded in 2016, uses machine learning to offer personalized app interventions.
Investments in motion tracking technology also remain important. Kaia Health aims to remain a leader in 2D motion detection and continue to develop the technology. This technology enables app users to receive real-time feedback on movement execution using their smartphone or tablet camera. At the same time, Kaia will continue to invest heavily in clinical research and expand its sales team in the US from its New York office.
“Just before the leap into the mass market”
Kaia founder Konstantin Mehl is pleased to have the renowned investors on board. He says:
“The challenges in the treatment of chronically ill patients clearly demonstrate the need for new models of healthcare, even before the COVID-19 pandemic,”
The pandemic has forced many patients to discontinue therapies that could not be performed at home. This has accelerated the acceptance of new care approaches that can be provided without the physical presence of doctors or therapists. Mehl further explains:
"We believe we're on the verge of making the leap from early adopter to mass market. This funding round supports us in increasing the reach of our platform and thus making our contribution."
Need for digital therapy platforms
The Kaia platform had more than 400,000 users within just four years.
“We see an enormous need for digital therapy platforms that can be used to treat chronic diseases cost-effectively and scalably directly from home,”
says Heather Roxborough, partner at Optum Ventures. She finds the expansion to other clinical conditions, such as lung diseases, particularly encouraging.
