Munich, 14th October 2024 – Europe’s first impact fund, BONVENTURE, together with the Spanish impact fund Ship2B Ventures, has invested in the digital health company ViViRA. With this growth financing, the Berlin-based startup plans to expand its market-leading ViViRA app for back pain nationwide and develop additional digital solutions for musculoskeletal disorders.

According to the Robert Koch Institute1, around 60% of Germans experience back pain at least once a year. Back pain is one of the leading causes of incapacity for work and early retirement. However, the current care for back pain patients shows significant gaps: according to BARMER2, only 50% of patients requiring physiotherapy receive the necessary prescription.

The prescription digital therapeutic app ViViRA provides movement therapy for home use to reduce back pain. It offers an innovative alternative to traditional physiotherapy and is free for patients, as it is reimbursed by all of Germany’s statutory health insurances and an increasing number of private health insurances. ViViRA can be prescribed by all doctors and psychotherapists in Germany.

Founder Dr. Philip Heimann comments: “Since we founded the company, more than 200,000 people have already used ViViRA. And since our general reimbursement “DiGA”-listing, ViViRA was the most frequently doctor prescribed DiGA of all DiGAs for the period of 2020 to 2023, according to Germany’s largest health insurances TK3 and BARMER4. All you need to start our fully reimbursed digital therapy is a prescription from a doctor and a smartphone. With the investment from BONVENTURE and Ship2B Ventures, we will continue to increase the number of patients served while introducing additional digital therapeutics to the health care system.”

Personalized therapy through a medical algorithm
ViViRA was developed in close collaboration with doctors and patients, meeting the highest clinical standards for effectiveness and patient safety. The integrated medical algorithm tailors daily training sessions individually, offering personalized movement exercises. Clinical studies have shown that back pain can be reduced by 54% after 2 weeks of using ViViRA (67% after 12 weeks)5. A key factor in the therapy’s success is the individualized training plan: the more regularly users provide feedback on their pain and function after conducting therapy exercises, the more personalized the program becomes.

Angela Lawaldt, Partner at BONVENTURE, emphasizes: “We only invest in health solutions that show measurable – in this case, also tangible – symptom improvement through active patient participation. That’s exactly what ViViRA does. This simple, free home therapy solution is an effective way to address the widespread issue of back pain. With ViViRA, we aim to reach even more people with musculoskeletal disorders.”

Jordi Ferrer, from Ship2B, adds: “We are very excited to add ViViRA to our portfolio as it fits completely into our investment thesis. Providing the best available therapy for back pain, which is one of the most prevalent causes of work absenteeism, with the benefits of digital solutions in terms of affordability, geographical reach, and business scalability.”

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1 RKI, Journal of Health Monitoring, March 2021
2 Barmer GEK Heil- und Hilfsmittelreport 2016
3 TK DiGA-Report II, 2024
4 BARMER Arztreport 2024
5 Weise H, Zenner B, Schmiedchen B, et al. The Effect of an App-Based Home Exercise Program on Self-reported Pain Intensity in Unspecific and Degenerative Back Pain: Pragmatic Open-label Randomized Controlled Trial. J Med Internet Res. 2022;24(10):e41899

About ViViRA

About ViViRA
The digital therapeutics (DTx) company ViViRA develops and markets digital health applications in the field of musculoskeletal disorders. The aim is to help people with musculoskeletal disorders reduce pain and restore physical function. The company, which is based in Berlin and Munich, was founded in 2015 by Dr. Philip Heimann and the rehab clinic operators Dr. Petra Becker (Dr. Becker Klinikgruppe, Cologne) and Fabian Blank (formerly Meduna Klinikverbund, Bad Bertrich).

Press Contact
Vivira Health Lab GmbH
eMail: presse@vivira.com
Tel.: +49 30 814 536 869

About BONVENTURE

BONVENTURE was founded in 2003 to support impact-oriented companies with impact venture capital, which have a social or ecological business purpose and thus provide a measurable social impact. BONVENTURE was the first to take up this approach in German-speaking countries and the first European social fund registered with BAFIN in Europe (EuSEF). It currently manages capital of around 100 million euros and has so far supported more than 55 impact companies. More at: www.bonventure.de

Press Contact
Christina Smith
BonVenture Management GmbH
eMail: christina.smith@bonventure.de
Tel.: 0172/8366577

About Ship2B Ventures

Ship2B Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in the most impactful startups. As impact investors, they seek to generate a triple bottom line: economic, social and environmental.
Ship2B Ventures combines the best of the venture capital world with the world of impact, maximising the financial return on its investments with a clear intention to generate, manage and measure impact. Today, the investment team manages €60 million and has participated in over 50 deals. Qida, Cocoli, Ocean Ecostructures, Hannun or Solatom are some of the startups invested in. More information at: ship2bventures.com

Press Contact
Xavier Bermejo
Ship2B Ventures
eMail: xbermejo@ship2bventures.com
Tel.: +34 620140561