COLUMBIA, MO / ACCESSWIRE / March 7, 2023 / Healium, a virtual and augmented reality biofeedback company, announced today one of the largest private equity raises for a women-owned business in mid-Missouri history. The immersive media company has also entered into a know-how license agreement with Mayo Clinic.
Healium's products and patented technologies bring biometric data from fitness trackers to life inside virtual, augmented, or mixed reality stories so the user can see and interact with their own EEG brain patterns, heart rate, skin conductance, blood pressure or other biomarkers. Healium's immersive products including Sleepium are used worldwide in schools, with frontline healthcare workers, elite athletes, and the US military to self-manage anxiety, burnout, and downshift the nervous system before sleep or stressful events. In 7 peer-reviewed journals, Healium has been shown to have clinical benefit in as little as 4 minutes.
Through this know-how agreement, Mayo Clinic will provide subject matter experts to assist in the development of immersive mental health and fitness capabilities utilizing virtual and augmented reality.
"By collaborating with Mayo Clinic, we've built an important bridge between biometric data, generative AI, and XR content," said Sarah Hill, Healium's CEO who developed the technology with Dr. Jeff Tarrant in 2016 to counteract the traumatic media images she encountered as a former TV broadcaster.
"Media images can be hurtful but when compounded differently into something soothing, they can also heal," said Hill. "These are powerful, drugless, portable coping mechanisms for this mental health emergency that quickly interrupt the stress response."
Healium works by spatializing biodata from consumer wearables you may already have in your home into a 3D solar system, butterflies, or even a Jaguar that will stop pacing if you quiet your mind. VR goggles are optional. Healium also has a mobile augmented reality version that works just with a phone or tablet.
Each year, 700,000 people worldwide take their own lives. Emotional stress is the cause of 90% of doctor's visits, and up to 50% of the population struggles with insomnia. With the rise of the opioid epidemic, not everyone wants to take anxiety or sleep pharmaceuticals due to concerns about side effects and addiction.
Stress is the 21st Century epidemic, according to the World Health Organization. Stress and insomnia cost US businesses more than $300 billion each year due to absenteeism, reduced productivity, poor decision-making, and mistakes. While meditation helps, it can be difficult to know whether it's working. How are you supposed to learn to quiet your mind if you can't see or interact with it? Healium allows you to not just track the EEG brainwave and heart rate data from your wearables as a number but see and interact with your feelings as 3D objects, so the user can learn to self-regulate their calm, focus, and pre-sleep routine. (VR goggles now come with blue light filters or "night mode" settings).
Healium recently completed a successful seed raise totaling more than $3.5 million in oversubscribed rounds. Participating funds include Ambition Fund II, Captain Partners & Astronaut Holdings, Citrine Angels, Coact Capital, Gaingels, Impact Venture Capital, KC Rise Fund, Mayo Clinic, Missouri Technology Corporation, QRM Capital, Stadia Ventures, Tidewater Capital, and Underdog Ventures. In addition to investment, Healium has generated millions of dollars in revenue and created jobs in the high-tech sector for the Missouri economy.
The company's success is the result of state and local resources that helped it succeed, including the Missouri Innovation Center, REDI, Mizzou Venture Mentoring Service, the MU Entrepreneurship Legal Clinic, KC Rise, the Columbia Women's Business Center, Pipeline Entrepreneurs, Missouri IDEA Fund Co-investment, WIN for Entrepreneurs, and the Enterprise Center of Johnson County.
Mayo Clinic has a financial interest in the technology referenced in this press release. Mayo Clinic will use any revenue it receives to support its not-for-profit mission in patient care, education, and research.
Healium's IOS and Android mobile apps are currently compatible with Apple Watch (iphone) and consumer grade EEG headbands with more wearables and fitness trackers coming soon. You can get a free two-week trial by downloading the Healium app on the Apple, Google Play, or virtual reality app stores by searching HEALium.
About Healium: Healium is a patented technology that connects bio-data from hardware agnostic consumer wearables to modify and recommend 3D objects in the metaverse. Its products, including Sleepium, allow users to learn to self-regulate their anxiety by giving them the ability to see their EEG brain patterns or heart rate personified in real-time. In seven peer-reviewed journals, Healium has been shown to significantly reduce anxiety or improve mood in as little as four minutes. Healium has been featured by Apple, Google, Forbes, Today, Discovery, Wall Street Journal, Venture Beat, and the DIY Network to name a few. It won the 2022 NFL Players Association pitch challenge, the Procter & Gamble Ventures Innovation Prize, 2022 CES Innovation Award, a Headstream powered by Second Muse Innovation award, and SBIRs with the US Air Force. Learn more here: https://www.tryhealium.com/.
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Lais Botella de Campos
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SOURCE: Healium