oVRcome
oVRcome is a Christchurch company whose smartphone and virtual reality app delivers exposure therapy for anxiety and specific phobias, including fear of flying, needles, heights, spiders and public speaking.
- Category
- Bio and Healthcare
- Fund
- NZVC I
- Website
- www.ovrcome.io
What oVRcome does
A clinician builds an exposure hierarchy for a patient and assigns it, and the patient works through it between appointments on their own phone, using one of the largest libraries of real-life 360 degree VR footage. More than 2,000 clinicians across clinics, universities and health systems in 89 countries use it, and the company counts more than 120,000 VR exposure sessions delivered.
The secret
The bottleneck in exposure therapy is the therapist's hour, not the treatment. A University of Otago randomized trial found a 75 percent reduction in phobia symptoms after six weeks of app-delivered sessions, so the practice can move onto the patient's own phone between appointments and a clinician's caseload stops capping how many people get treated.
Why NZVC invested in oVRcome
We backed oVRcome because effective exposure therapy is hard to access and expensive to deliver, and oVRcome makes it available on a phone with published clinical evidence behind it. The team turned a lockdown side project into a platform clinicians use in 89 countries. Demand for accessible mental health treatment far outstrips the supply of clinicians, and evidence-based VR exposure that a patient can practice between appointments helps close that gap.
In the founder's words
“Since meeting the team at NZVC and throughout our investment relationship, NZVC's approach has been one of pure enablement and support in ovrcome's vision of making mental health treatment more accessible. NZVC instantly got our mission and provided support and expertise wherever and whenever it was needed.”
oVRcome in the press
- Whakarongorau Aotearoa invested in oVRcomeNew Zealand Doctor · 10 January 2023
- NZ study finds mobile app able to alleviate symptoms of common phobiasMobiHealthNews · 21 July 2022
- An Otago trial found oVRcome cut phobia symptoms by three quartersStuff, University of Otago · 13 July 2022
- Got a phobia? Help is on the way through virtual realityNZ Herald · 13 July 2022
- oVRcome was cleared to run a clinical trialScoop · 25 May 2021