London-based GripAble is a startup that digitises upper limb rehabilitation from hospital to home. Now, the startup closed £1.6 million pre-Series A funding to scale its business. This round officially kicks off the Series A funding that will be closed in Q3 2021.
Prepares to foray into the US
The investment round was led by Triple Point Venture Fund along with participation from Oxford Technology Fund and Imperial College Innovation Fund. Notably, Imperial College Innovation Fund invests in businesses that have strong links to the university. This company is the first on based on intellectual property developed at Imperial to get the investment from this fund. With this investment, the total funding raised by GripAble is now £4 million.
GripAble intends to further scale its industry-leading training and assessment platform across Europe and the UK with the new funds. Also, it prepares for its US market launch. Besides this, the investment will facilitate the delivery of the digitally-led, remote patient engagement platform that collects empirical data on persistence and adherence and objective data on rehabilitation results to support both users and therapists.
Brijesh Roy, Seed Investment Manager at Imperial, said: “GripAble’s progress to date demonstrates the considerable patient benefits achievable through academic entrepreneurship. GripAble’s driven leadership team have developed great technology and worked closely with healthcare providers and patients to bring to market an innovative solution for an acute unmet need. We are excited to support the company through scale-up and their forthcoming US launch.”
Julian Pickstone, Head of Impact Investment at Triple Point Venture Fund said: “Triple Point Venture is excited to have made a further investment in GripAble, following on from our original funding in 2019. We are confident that GripAble have the product and determination to revolutionise delivery of rehab into the growing home healthcare environment, and look forward to working with them as they change rehab for the best.”
Eyes to expand further
The upcoming Series A funding in the coming months will help the company to become the gold standard upper limb technology provider in the UK and Europe. Also, it will help it gain a significant foothold in the US market. Already, GripAble has deployed several pilot sites in the US. Its platform provides the opportunity for further home-based technological advances seeking to tackle finger dexterity through elbow and whole arm training. The company intends to look beyond the horizons of upper limb therapy in the future.
Eases pressure on healthcare systems
Founded by Paul Rinne and Mike Mace in 2016, develops simple digital therapy tools combining them with mobile games, thereby motivating physically impaired patients. GripAble’s first product is a highly sensitive, portable hand-grip that connects wirelessly with a mobile-based app, allowing patients to play our fun therapy games. It is designed for low-cost, easy-access assessment and therapy of hand and arm disability, thereby providing increased engagement and allowing for self-training in hospitals and at home.
In the past six months, GripAble has deployed over 1,000 units and became the leader in the upper limb remote rehabilitation space in the UK. Over 35,000 activity sessions have been completed on its platform and has registered over 7.5 million movement repetitions and counting. The company is capable of providing insight into patient engagement along with increased adherence to prescribed care and therapy programmes.
Via its assessment and training platform and its bespoke hand-held sensors, data and software services, the company lets more patients access exceptional care from professional therapists for a longer period. It drives improved outcomes and reduces the pressure on the healthcare systems.
In the UK, GripAble is in discussions with big pharma companies, international distributors and health insurance firms seeking to improve outcomes at a more cost-effective rate. It also partnered with a number of organisations – Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Neurology UK (ACPIN), which is the first tech partnership of its kind for ACPIN.
Dr Paul Rinne, CEO and co-founder of GripAble said: “Our goal is to build on these foundations, creating an end-to-end technology led platform to enable every therapist to deliver further gold standard, evidence based, care remotely, and for us to then drive and support patient self-management. GripAble’s 24-hour delivery, rapid set-up and ongoing virtual support are also key drivers for adoption.”
He added: “It is a challenging task to build a product for both neurological and musculoskeletal disorders, for individuals of all ages and with all ranges of cognitive abilities, but we have succeeded in delivering to market a product with incredibly broad applicability by putting the users – therapists and patients – front and centre of everything we do.”
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