Belgian scale-up Oncomfort raises €10 million in Series A funding co-led by Debiopharm and Crédit Mutuel Innovation to further develop its Digital Sedation™ through Virtual Reality
BRUSSELS, LAUSANNE, Switzerland, and Paris, Sept. 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Oncomfort, the Belgian inventor of and leader in Digital Sedation™ - a method for relieving patients' pain and anxiety without medication - today announces the completion of a €10 million Series A funding round co-led by two prominent institutional investors: Debiopharm and Crédit Mutuel Innovation. Oncomfort plans to use this investment to develop its innovative digital therapy solutions and accelerate its international expansion.
Major investment to support Oncomfort's roadmap
Founded in 2017, Oncomfort is a Belgian scale-up specialized in Digital Sedation™, a completely new method for relieving patients' pain and anxiety through treatment with clinically proven sessions of therapeutic Virtual Reality. Since the launch of the Sedakit™ for Digital Sedation™ in Benelux and France in June 2019, over 30,000 patients have been treated and have had their pain and anxiety relieved before, during, and after interventions in many clinical fields such as anesthesia, oncology, interventional radiology and cardiology, as well as pediatrics.
Oncomfort has raised no less than €10 million in a Series A funding round. It plans to use this investment to develop its Digital Sedation™ solution and accelerate its international expansion on the European and American markets. The investment round was realized with two leading institutional investors: the Swiss Debiopharm, and the French Crédit Mutuel Innovation (CMI). The investment includes continuing support from Wallonia Innovation and Growth (W.IN.G) and the existing investors. Both institutional investors will join Oncomfort's newly composed Board of Directors.
"We are at a tipping point in our digital therapy," says Mario Huyghe, CEO of Oncomfort. "The medical community has discovered the advantages and potential of Digital Sedation™ to relieve pain and anxiety without medication. Virtual Reality acts as an enabler for this digital therapy. Yet, Oncomfort's true potential comes from the scientific evidence of its digital sedation and the multidisciplinary co-creation with the expertise of anesthesiologists, neurologists, psychologists, and hypnotherapists. With this Series A funding, we will accelerate our product development with a broader engineering team and invest in the international expansion of Oncomfort."
Medical efficacy and optimization of the patient's journey
"We are delighted to find a scientifically validated digital tool to support the overall journey of patients, which frequently includes various levels of pain, anxiety, and fear. The fact that advanced Virtual Reality in combination with hypnotherapy and integrative therapeutic techniques can be used to effectively sedate patients is truly impressive and offers an interesting option for patients to find physical and emotional relief," explained Thierry Mauvernay, President of Debiopharm.
"Our investment in Oncomfort's digital sedation solution is based on the strong potential of digital therapeutics as well as the specific intellectual property and scientific evidence that Oncomfort has built over recent years," continued Karine Lignel, CEO of Crédit Mutuel Innovation.
"With this investment in Oncomfort, we want to push the boundaries to inspire healthcare stakeholders to acknowledge that there is much more we can do for patients through digital technology," said Tanja Dowe, CEO of Debiopharm Innovation Fund.
"We were convinced, on the one hand, by the scientific results and the technological developments already achieved by Oncomfort, that will enable an even more personalized patient care thanks to the upcoming new features of the Sedakit™, and on the other hand by the high level of the team and its partners. With this long-term investment, we are committed to supporting Oncomfort's team to unleash its potential in the European and American market," explained Delphine Cardi, Director of Participations, and Tanguy Besson, Associate at Crédit Mutuel Innovation.
"Having supported Oncomfort since 2017, W.IN.G is delighted to see it gather substantial funding and will continue to invest in its development, which it regards as promising. By supporting this start-up from the outset, W.IN.G also wanted to assist the emergence of a disruptive technology to relieve the pain of patients in the healthcare sector," concluded Colin Loyens, Investment Manager.
About Oncomfort
Oncomfort, founded in 2017 and headquartered in Wavre near Brussels (Belgium), combines Virtual Reality capabilities and knowledge on clinical hypnosis into an innovative medical solution for digital sedation. Co-founders Diane Jooris, Gérald de Patoul, Mario Huyghe, and Julien Tesse built a co-creative team that successfully brings to market medical CE-approved applications for digital sedation as well as anxiety and pain management. Both nationally and internationally, Oncomfort has received multiple awards in the fields of clinical application, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
For more information, please visit www.oncomfort.com.
Or find us on LinkedIn.
Press contact
Laurence de Crombrugghe
laurence@oncomfort.com, +32 (0)478 39 47 50
Leslie Buyle for Oncomfort
Leslie.buyle@ketchum.com, +32 (0)498 67 46 15
About Debiopharm
Debiopharm develops, manufactures, and invests in innovative therapies and technologies that respond to high unmet medical needs in oncology and bacterial infections. Through our digital health investments, we provide funding and strategic guidance for companies with an ambition to improve the patient journey and re-imagine how clinical trials are conducted. Our growing portfolio company achievements include 10 FDA clearances, 13 CE marks, 2 IPOs, and 4 trade exits. Since 2008, we have invested over USD 120 million, typically leading the investment rounds of our 16 portfolio companies.
For more information, please visit https://www.debiopharm.com/digital-health/.
Or follow us on Twitter via @debiopharmfund.
Press contact
Dawn Haughton
dawn.haughton@debiopharm.com, +41 (0)21 321 01 11
About Crédit Mutuel Innovation
Crédit Mutuel Innovation is the venture capital subsidiary of Crédit Mutuel Equity (€ 3.0 billion in capital), a member of Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale. Its objective is to invest in companies developing promising technologies. Crédit Mutuel Innovation selects companies with strong growth potential in dynamic sectors such as information technology, telecommunications, electronics, life sciences, new materials and environment. For more than 15 years, Crédit Mutuel Innovation has invested - and often reinvests - its own capital to support innovative companies to their market. Crédit Mutuel Innovation's policy is to provide long-term equity support to innovative startups to streamline their chances of success.
For more information, please visit www.creditmutuelequity.com.
Innovation contact
Delphine Cardi, Investment Director
delphine.cardi@creditmutuel.fr, +33 (0)7 87 13 92 97
Tanguy Besson, Associate
tanguy.besson@creditmutuel.fr, +33 (0)6 44 26 05 86
Press contact
Véronique Richez-Lerouge
v.richez-lerouge@reso-media.com, +33 (0)6 14 63 90 00
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