Arthro Therapeutics, a Swedish startup creating digital therapeutics for the treatment of arthritis, has raised $2.2 million in seed funding. Sweet Capital led the round, and previous investors Dendera Ventures and Incos Invest also contributed. Several angel investors also pitched in, including Sophia Bendz, Hampus Jakobsson, and Tim Jackson. Lund University also contributed. The company had $1 million in funding already, so this brings its total funding to $3.2 million.

The company, formerly known as Jojnts, went through StartUp Health's program back in 2015. Arthro's first product, Joint Academy, is a CE-marked digital version of an evidence-based program called "Better Management of OsteoArthritis" or BOA. The original, non-digital program was first used in 2008 and has now been completed by more than 60,000 patients. 

"We have shown that we deliver clinical proof and outcomes equivalent to traditional face-to-face treatments, but with half the resources," Jakob Dahlberg, CEO and cofounder of Arthro, said in a statement. "This is something we have managed to reproduce with hundreds of patients, and with the new round of funding we will be able to bring our program to thousands of patients. Medicine transformed into software through data science is something we believe will become ubiquitious in the clinical workflow."

Joint Academy connects users to a six-week program plus an introductory week and a longer-term sustenance program. The app conducts an assessment and uses that data to create a personalized treatment plan and walk the user through that plan. It also connects the user to a physio-therapist, an interactive education module, and a peer-to-peer support group. The company has found that 85 percent of patients feel better after six weeks and 68 percent increase their physical activity and complete the program. The program is also reimburseable in Sweden by all of the country's major private payers.