Virtual reality companies BehaVR and OxfordVR merge
Tuesday, VR behavioral health platform BehaVR and OxfordVR, a VR platform for serious mental health issues, have announced their merger. The companies say their combination creates the largest virtual reality healthcare delivery platform.
The companies, which will unite under the BehaVR brand, also raised $13 million in Series B funding to support the merger. The round was led by Oxford Science Enterprises and Optum Ventures, with participation from Accenture Ventures, Confluent Health, Thornton Capital and Chrysalis Ventures.
BehaVR founding CEO Aaron Gani will lead the new company and its leadership team, which will include Dr. Daniel Freeman, psychiatrist, researcher, author and founder of OxfordVR.
WHAT HE DOES
Tennessee-based BehaVR offers digital prescription therapies for mental and behavioral health, including treatments for stress, pain, anxiety, and addiction. The company also uses biometrics and machine learning models in its offerings.
Based in England, OxfordVR, a spin-out from the University of Oxford, is developing immersive treatments for mental and behavioral health issues. OxfordVR was built on 20 years of research done by Freeman at the University of Oxford, where he investigated the potential of virtual reality in creating automated psychological treatments.
In June, the company has received FDA Breakthrough Device designation for its gameChange platform, which uses virtual reality-based automated cognitive behavioral therapy to treat serious mental health issues.
“The demand for mental health services far exceeds the resources available. Providers need help, and that help is available today through our clinically validated, evidence-based digital programs,” BehaVR’s Gani said in a statement. “By bringing together two innovative therapeutic teams in virtual reality, we are positioned to serve the widest range of patient populations possible at a time of great need.”
MARKET OVERVIEW
In 2021, BehaVR and the Japanese company Sumitomo Pharma signed a potential $163 million deal to create VR therapies to treat social anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder.
The partnership includes a multi-product and multi-DTx agreement, and is one of the largest collaborations between a pharmaceutical company and a virtual reality company in history.
OxfordVR entered the digital health scene in 2007. With gameChange, the company created Social commitment OVRdesigned to treat a variety of mental health issues associated with certain types of anxiety, including anxiety that accompanies agoraphobia, depression, and schizophrenia.
