Immergo Labs Secures Major Partnerships and Investors

Figure 1: Participant completing a balance assessment on a force plate while standing on foam.  Participant is also wearing an Oculus Quest 2.  This data will be used to develop their balance assessment that only requires the headset and controllers.

Moving Forward With Development and Partnerships

Figure 2: Two participants meeting in Immergo’s Virtual Physical Therapy Clinic to evaluate shoulder range of motion

Immergo Labs has been working hard on finalizing their minimal viable product (MVP) and fostering partnerships that will help with immersive virtual reality physical therapy platform development, testing, and adoption.  Over the past 90 days, Immergo has partnered with the University of Montana Biomechanics Lab to help with development of a novel balance assessment testing suite that will help physical therapists evaluate their patients remotely and decrease risk of falling.  This work has recently been integrated into Immergo’s Beyond platform. Immergo has also recently developed a full body tracking proof of concept and is hard at work on translating it into their remote care pipeline. On top of this development, Immergo has also partnered with Ready Player Me, a Metaverse Full-Body Online 3D Avatar Creator, to support users in creating digital twins of themselves or more! Those interested in creating a metaverse compatible avatar can do so at immergolabs.readyplayer.me.

Figure 3: Immergo’s environments are fully adjustable by therapists and patients in both background scenes and architecture.

More recently, Immergo has also received a letter of intent from the Houston Veterans Affairs (VA) to help with user testing and iteration of the platform.  The VA has a major need to remotely connect their patients to care providers as veterans are spread across the country and many have difficulty getting to the clinic multiple times per week.  Immergo also demoed their platform with Stanford Healthcare after the physical therapy department reached out to Immergo Labs to see what collaborations may be possible. They are excited about these opportunities as progress and always want to keep physical therapists involved throughout the design process. 

A Growing Team

Figure 4: A therapist reviews a patient's saved shoulder movements in immersive virtual reality.

Immergo is also growing! This summer they have brought on three new people to help with development and growth.  Melanie Martinez is designing serious exercise games, Bethlehem Messele is performing user experience research & science communication, and Maxim Kuznetsov is working full body tracking integration and product validation.  They are excited to have these new teammates who have been doing great work already! Also a big shout out to the CITRIS Workforce Innovation Program for supporting some of these interns!

Next Steps

Figure 5: Immergo’s full body tracking proof of concept

Next month, Immergo will begin an extended user study between its Beyond platform and traditional telehealth tools with several physical therapists to evaluate the efficacy and usability of remote care.  In September, they will apply to the next of the National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research Grant. If awarded, they will receive $1M to expand MVP to a launchable product, conduct further user testing, and beta launch the platform.  The grant will also match funding up to $500k from investors. With this in mind, Immergo has actively begun fundraising this month and have already raised $42k on Simple Agreements for Future Equity (SAFEs) which will be matched by the grant award. 

If you are interested in investing $10k+ for discounted SAFEs to support IP Strategy, Compliance, and Product Development please reach out for more information to invest@immergolabs.com. For those interested in investing less than $10k, be on the lookout for some exciting future announcements from Immergo Labs and Santa Cruz Works!