Giblib, a medical education streaming service with offerings including both VR and traditional videos of medical lectures and surgeries, has raised $2.5 million in seed funding, with participation from some notable strategic investors.
Those include Mayo Clinic, the Venture Reality Fund, Wavemaker 360, USC Marshall Venture Fund and Michelson 20MM.
“With our partners’ support, Giblib is uniquely positioned to disrupt how medical professionals worldwide take on their lifelong educational journeys by providing a dedicated online destination with the best learning experiences for every specialty,” Brian Conyer, CEO and co-founder of Giblib, said in a statement. “We are honored to have continued support from our investors who have been instrumental in bringing GIBLIB’s vision to reality.”
WHAT THEY DO
Originally incubated at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Giblib works with hospitals to offer a streaming service filled with 4K and 360 degree VR videos of both medical lectures and surgeries. Some of these can actually earn CME credits for doctors who view the content.
In addition to being among the customers for the content, hospitals partner with Giblib to help create it, allowing the startup to offer content from revered names like the Mayo Clinic, Cedars-Sinai, and Stanford Children’s Hospital.
WHAT IT’S FOR
The seed round will help Giblib to build out its offerings technically as well as form additional partnerships and expand the amount of content available in its streaming library.
MARKET SNAPSHOT
Virtual reality's potential for changing the way surgeons train is extensive, and different startups have tackled it in different ways. Osso VR and FundamentalVR, for instance, are using virtual reality to create surgical simulators which are interactive. Other startups like CrowdOptic have looked at using Google Glass to record and stream first-person videos of surgeries.
But few other companies are offering exactly what Giblib is creating. A company called Next Galaxy, now called CEEKVR, was planning to go into that space in 2015 but appears to have pivoted into entertainment streaming.
In terms of medical education more broadly, one company worth mentioning is LevelEx, which offers mobile games that can earn physicians CE credits.
ON THE RECORD
“As a retired orthopedic surgeon and an inventor of surgical devices, I’ve seen first-hand how GIBLIB’s platform will transform medical education and knowledge sharing within the medical community,” Dr. Gary K. Michelson, founder of Michelson 20MM, said in a statement. “My team and I are excited to support GIBLIB as it leads the charge with superior quality content and partnerships with the world’s leading doctors and hospitals to deliver substantial improvements to the learning experiences of physicians and medical students.”
