London-based Proximie, which enables surgeons to share clinical practices through AR, has secured US$38 million to further develop its healthtech platform.
F-Prime Capital led the Series B round, followed by Questa Capital, Eight Roads, Maverick Ventures, Global Ventures, BECO Capital and Cedar Mundi Ventures. This round brings the company’s total funding to $49 million.
Founded in 2016, the startup aims to improve surgical patient outcomes by creating “borderless operating rooms” through valuable surgeon-to-surgeon information exchange.
Dr Nadine Hachach-Haram, NHS surgeon and CEO of Proximie, said how the company wants to bring together “the best of human expertise and technology to imagine a world where operating theatres across the globe are connected”.
Currently, nearly 5 billion people worldwide do not have access to safe surgery, while 330 million operations take place worldwide each year. Thanks to a tool powered by AR, surgeons can now remotely assist other surgeons using their hands to demonstrate their practices.
“Surgery is very visual,” said Hachach-Haram, emphasising the importance of physical demonstrations of clinical practices.
While Proximie’s pioneering solution is breaking into the industry , other companies are also developing AR solutions in the market.
Indeed, US-based Proprio is also assisting surgeons during surgery with AR and SentiAR, a tool that projects holographic organs over a surgical patient to guide the operating team.
UK companies FundamentalVR and Osso VR are helping to train surgeons with VR tools.
Proximie, however, offers a holistic approach to optimising surgical procedures worldwide by also recording surgeries and thus creating a “digital footprint” that serves as a knowledge database that can be shared worldwide to ensure more equitable outcomes for patients, even in disadvantaged countries.
Hachach-Haram believes that this solution is a revolution in the industry, as the new possibilities for interaction and the digitalisation of surgery will disrupt the traditional paradigm.
Originally developed to help surgeons in war zones, the company went into business in 2019 with the aim of democratising surgery, ensuring better quality universally.
Like most healthtech innovations, the solution saw a surge in interest at the start of the pandemic. Its use increased by 430% in surgical practices worldwide.
One year later, the tool was used in 10,000 surgeries in 300 hospitals in 40 countries in the US, Middle East and Europe. The team has grown from 25 to 90 people in 2020.
Hachach-Haram also noted that she believes this growth will continue as new practices resulting from the pandemic become commonplace.
Proximie now plans to use its newly acquired capital to further develop its solution in the US. Its long-term goal remains to expand its services worldwide to provide the ability to connect anywhere in the world, increase expertise and make care more accessible.”