Lower back pain is the world's leading cause of disability. According to Germany's Robert Koch Institut, 60% of Germans experience it every year. The standard treatment is physiotherapy, effective but chronically overbooked. Germany's skills shortage in healthcare is, according to the Institut der Deutschen Wirtschaft, nowhere more acute than in physiotherapy. Patients wait up to 4 weeks, and many never get an appointment at all.
Vivira set out to solve this exact problem and the way they chose to solve it told us something about the team.
Vivira is a prescription digital therapy app for musculoskeletal conditions in the back. A doctor prescribes it, the patient's health insurance covers it, and they complete daily guided exercise programs at home over twelve weeks. Any doctor in Germany can prescribe it, and all statutory health insurers cover it.
In a randomized controlled trial against standard physiotherapy, Vivira produced 53% average pain reduction over 12 weeks, versus 15% for standard physiotherapy, and 92% of users felt a real difference. Today, Vivira is the most widely prescribed digital therapeutic for MSK in Germany.
Why we backed them
When Ship2B first invested in Vivira, the dominant strategy in digital health was to go around the system, direct-to-consumer, avoid the friction (and the rigor) of clinical validation.
Philip Heimann, CEO and co-founder of Vivira, had a McKinsey background and understood the German healthcare system well enough to know that building inside it, not around it, was the harder path. The team and him pursued DiGA certification through multi-year clinical trials, MDR approval, and permanent listing with Germany's Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices.
Vivira was listed in October 2020, one of the first DiGAs in Germany.
What was built is a product that exists inside the care system patients already use. Doctors recommend it, insurers pay for it, and there's no friction between the prescription and the therapy.
In five years of standard care Vivira has learned what works and what doesn't and proven that it functions not just as a therapy but as a company. Their next horizon is AI, using it to improve outcomes, increase adherence, and put better data to work for patients.
The new round
Vivira's growth round, led by IBB Capital and BONVENTURE with the participation of Patrick Palacin, co-founder of TeleClinic, goes toward expanding their therapy portfolio, bringing AI further into the treatment experience, and growing beyond Germany.
By Jordi Ferrer Investment Partner · Ship2B Ventures
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