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
oVRcome pairs cognitive behavioral therapy modules with a large VR content library so users can face their fears gradually and safely, and it gives clinicians a tool to extend treatment between sessions.
The secret
Exposure therapy does not need a therapist in the room to work. A University of Otago randomised trial found a 75 percent reduction in phobia symptoms after six weeks of self-guided VR sessions, which is why a treatment normally rationed by clinician supply now runs on a phone in more than 60 countries.
Why NZVC invested in oVRcome
NZVC invested in oVRcome from NZVC Fund I. We file the company under Bio and Healthcare on the portfolio wall.
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 used in dozens of countries and adopted by partners including the NHS. Demand for accessible mental health treatment far outstrips the supply of clinicians, and self-guided, evidence-based VR therapy helps close that gap.
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