A Boston startup using hardware, software and AI to analyze musculoskeletal health has raised new funding.
FIGUR8 announced this week that it closed a $25 million Series A-1 funding. First Spark Ventures led the round, with participation from DigiTx Partners and Phoenix Venture Partners.
“(First Spark Ventures’) experience in backing transformative technologies and strategic guidance will not only bolster our efforts to elevate the musculoskeletal industry, but also pave the way for significant advancements in digital MSK health, as FIGUR8 elevates the standard of care with codified, clinically-relevant data,” founder and CEO Nan-Wei Gong said in a statement.
The Boston company is working to standardize musculoskeletal health and injury recovery data. The company uses lightweight sensors worn by patients to measure joint motion and muscle function as they perform certain exercises. FIGUR8's software platform then gives providers a closer look at the patient’s clinically relevant biomarkers to help create a personalized treatment plan.
The company also works with payers to assess injured workers’ progress and to improve the claims and underwriting processes.
FIGUR8 emerged from the MIT Media Lab and is led by Gong, who completed her Ph.D. at the lab. Gong previously worked as a research development lead at Google and as founder and managing partner of Circular2, an engineering consulting firm. Her latest project, FIGUR8, exited stealth in 2019 with $7.5 million in seed funding.
"Mobility is an essential part of who we are and how we function. FIGUR8 brings a proven, deeply scientific way to guide the best pathways for restoration of mobility," said Manish Kothari, founding managing partner of First Spark Ventures. “Objective MSK data enables a new level of personalized healthcare and risk evaluation, while simultaneously reducing cost and strongly improving satisfaction across patients, providers and payers.”
Kothari and Christina Jenkins of Phoenix Venture Partners are joining FIGUR8’s board of directors.
FIGUR8 said the new capital would support the growth and adoption of its “bioMotion Assessment Platform,” which turns the biomechanics data gathered in clinical settings into insights for musculoskeletal health and injury recovery.
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