Tympa Health Technologies, LTD announced the close of $8 million in seed financing to accelerate its expansion across the UK, Europe, and US markets.
TympaHealth is a digital health company that uses “patented, award-winning technology to allow for comprehensive hearing health assessments to be performed in point-of-care settings, enabling earlier disease detection and access to cost-effective care.” TympaHealth is CE marked and FDA registered and “the only solution of its kind dedicated to the democratization of ear and hearing care,” according to the company’s announcement.
By combining proprietary hardware and AI-enabled software, TympaHealth helped create “the first, all-in-one hearing assessment platform available to patients outside traditional primary or secondary care settings, like pharmacies, retail stores, and assisted living facilities.” The point-of-care tool helps provide patients (and their providers) with the information to detect disease and manage their hearing health through high-resolution eardrum visualization, earwax removal, and a real-time screening audiogram, the company says.
Founded by CEO Dr Krishan Ramdoo while practicing as an ENT surgeon in the National Health Service (NHS), TympaHealth was launched commercially in 2021. In the last 12 months, TympaHealth has “enjoyed growth helping to support the NHS through its elective care recovery via a teleotology/audiology pathway.”
Chairman of the NHS, Lord David Prior, said, “TympaHealth can deliver ear and hearing health services safely into the community and away from the hospital, expanding critical access for patients. It is doing so effectively in the UK and it is great to see an NHS innovation taking the next step of their journey.”
Rob Skedge, managing director at Boots Hearingcare, said, “The demand and subsequent success of the service we offered with Tympa, gave us confidence to plan expansion beyond 100 stores to provide nationwide coverage.”
Currently more than 1.5 billion people (nearly 20% of the global population) live with hearing loss and that number is set to continue to rise.
The financing was led by serial healthcare entrepreneurs Maurice Ferre and Arjun Desai, who were joined by a global consortium of investors with experience in developing, launching, and scaling cutting-edge medical technologies. The group included Jim Breyer, Anil Sethi, Martin Varsavsky, Carlos Gallardo, Fred Moll, Elan Katz, Manny Kadre, and Imran Hakim to name a few. TympaHealth is an NHS spin-out and also announces that KHP MedTech Innovations, a collaboration between Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and King’s College London has invested in this seed round.
“Tympa is the perfect combination of intuitive technology and improved access to care that is driving our next-generation patient-centric approach to earlier disease detection and modification,” said Sethi, former Apple Health Executive and Founder of Gliimpse and Ciitizen.
Ramdoo said, “We are incredibly humbled to be supported by such an experienced and distinguished group of investors. This funding will fuel our growth and gives Tympa the opportunity to revolutionize an important area of unmet need in the healthcare sector.”
Alongside this announcement, TympaHealth will be appointing Desai and Karin Ajmani to their board of directors. Ajmani holds board positions at multiple digital health companies and most recently served as President and Chief of Strategic Development at Progyny, a fertility benefits company. Desai has scaled several medical and healthcare technology companies, including leading global teams at Johnson and Johnson Innovation and Insightec.
“For a UK company now commercially expanding into the US, having Karin and Arjun’s collective experience of growing companies and their collaborative passion for innovation is a tremendous asset to Tympa, its customers, and the patients seeking the best care in hearing health,” said Ramdoo.
“More and more research shows the significant correlation between hearing loss and patient falls, social isolation, and dementia, to name a few. It is cost-effective solutions like Tympa, which focus on preventative care, that are high on the agenda at the payor/provider level. I am thrilled to be joining the board at TympaHealth,” said Ajmani.
Source: Tympa Health Technologies
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