Paris-based Tilak Healthcare, a company that aims to build a series of fun medical games to change the way chronic ophthalmological conditions are monitored, has announced that it has raised €7M in a fresh round of funding.
With this round, the company has raised a total of €12M in funding since its inception in 2016.
Investors in this round
The round was managed by Elaia with participation from Swen Capital Partners, Matmut Innovation, and co-founder and long-time investor iBionext Growth Fund.
Edouard Gasser, co-founder and CEO of Tilak Healthcare, says, “Visual health is one of the challenges in ageing well, as emphasised by World Sight Day, which takes place in October each year. At Tilak Healthcare, we believe that digital and video game technologies can contribute to solving some of the problems faced by healthcare systems around the world. We are delighted to be surrounded by people who share this vision.”
The company’s new board will include the expertise of Samantha Jérusalmy and Sacha Loiseau (Elaia), Julien Bourret (Swen Capital Partners) along with Cédric Sellin, Bernard Gilly, and Alexia Perouse (iBionext).
Mobile games to monitor patients with chronic diseases?
Founded by Edouard Gasser and Jean-Francois Girmens, Tilak Healthcare is developing a technological platform for medical games, prescribed by healthcare professionals, for the monitoring and support of chronic diseases. The company claims that its products are fun, engaging and helps in strengthening the relationship between patients and their physicians.
In a nutshell, Tilak is a videogame studio where like-minded and passionate people create fun mobile medical games to help others. The company says its product on the market is clinically validated, developed with physician and patient advocates, compliant with medical device regulations, and protects the patient’s privacy.
On its website, the company states, “Our team is made up of medical experts and seasoned gaming professionals, who share a common goal: to develop applications that deliver an engaging experience for patients and clinical value for physicians.”
The company is guided by professor José-Alain Sahel – founder of the Vision Institute and Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; and Edouard Gasser – Tilak Healthcare’s CEO and a former Head of Studio at Gameloft.
The game with medical modules to monitor eyesight
According to the World Health Organisation, “Globally, at least 2.2 billion people have a near or distance vision impairment. In at least 1 billion – or almost half – of these cases, vision impairment could have been prevented or has yet to be addressed.”
With this issue in mind, Tilak Healthcare developed OdySight, the first medical game for mobile devices used to remotely monitor age-related visual impairment. The company says, OdySight is easy to use and forms a practical and fun link between the patient and the ophthalmologist.
OdySight has already optimised the healthcare pathways of thousands of patients in Europe and the US who are suffering from retina diseases such as age-related macular degeneration or diabetic retinopathy, allowing their ophthalmologists to monitor their visual acuity in real-time.
Capital utilisation
The proceeds from this round will help the company in its international rollout and diversification of offerings around OdySight.
OdySight has already been rolled out in France where it is used by nearly 20 per cent of retinologists. The company is now beginning expansion in the US as well as in Spain and Belgium.
Additionally, Tilak Healthcare also plans to launch OdySight Care, a remote vision monitoring solution for healthcare companies to meet the need for regular monitoring during clinical trials, and for health insurance groups for use in preventative health.