Revealed in a press release on Bloomberg, FundamentalVR, a UK-based virtual reality (VR) training and data analysis company, closed £4.3 million (around $5.6M) in Series A funding to further develop their Fundamental Surgery medical training platform to incorporate haptics.

FundamentalVR have used haptic touch with Fundamental Surgery before in their partnership with HaptX. HaptX specializes in developing haptic touch gloves and are best known for their work in the automotive industry, wherein they collaborated with Nissan to bring realistic touch to car design. The funding round was led by Downing Ventures, with participation from Epic Private Equity and Brighteyes Ventures. Leading medical institutions also participated in the funding round, including Mayo Clinic, one of America’s leading centers of medical excellence, and Sana Kliniken, one of Europe’s leading medical organizations and the third largest hospital organization in Germany. The company claims that these investments are strong endorsements of the quality of FundamentalVR’s offering.

“We identified early on that FundamentalVR’s team was developing a platform that was very special,” said Al Sisto, CEO of Tern, a shareholder in FundamentalVR that specializes in Internet of Things (IoT). “A training and data analysis offering which could revolutionize the skills development of surgical practice, while at the same time creating a database of significant importance to the industry. We are delighted that the value and relevance of this exciting business and its entire staff has been recognized by this outstanding syndicate of new investors we helped solidify.”

Leveraging the immersive power of VR for the world of medical training has become a lucrative venture for businesses, schools, and healthcare institutions to enhance patient care and practitioner effectiveness. Osso VR, a competing VR medical training platform, announced it reached 1,000 monthly users practicing surgical scenarios safely, and Colorado State University created a collaborative VR biomedical lab to educate students using virtual cadavers.

“The potential for extended reality (XR) to improve medicine and healthcare is enormous, but still in its early stages,” said Roy Kachur, 3E Insider who reflected on how XR will empower healthcare. “It will take the dedication, skill and innovation of developers and medical practitioners working together to realize the full potential and benefits of XR going forward.”