Proprio - The new way of seeing for surgeons, $43m Series B

💉 Weekly Startup Deep Dive: Proprio

📃 Message from the Team

Today we’ll be diving into the world of Helathcare Technology (HealthTech). Proprio raised a $43m Series B to introduce surgeons to a new way of performing surgeries.

- Team @ DeelScoop

🤝 Surgeons, meet your new visual assistant.

Proprio is a developer of surgical navigation and imaging tools to improve surgical accuracy, workflows and patient outcomes through augmented reality (AR).

💰️ Who’s committed money?

6 investors participated in funding the $43 million Series B. Of the investors, 2 were individuals: Jaime Montealegre and Naveen Jain. Bird B, Bold Capital Partners, DCVC and Wheelhouse Partners complete the round’s consortium of investors.

The funding will be used to meet domestic & global demand for the startup’s surgical navigation platform.

Total funding to date amounts to $80.2 million.

🤹 Let’s meet the brains behind Proprio

1. Samuel R. Browd, M.D., Ph.D. (Co-Founder & Chief Medical Officer): Current Professor of Neurological Surgery at University of Washington

2. Gabriel Jones (Co-Founder & CEO): ex-Senior Producer at Intentional Futures

The founders combine a winning-mixture of backgrounds. (1) Samuel Browd, a multi-time healthtech founder & professor in Neurology who’s been conducting research at an extremely well funded medical University. (2) Gabriel Jones, a top business executive who’s built & deployed structures at large corporations and undergone multi-billion dollar mergers.

📈 Analysis

HealthTech startups are navigating a different playing field when it comes to growth. Healthcare will always be a growing market in terms of demand - unless our population starts declining. So, challenges are coming from elsewhere:

Talent shortage, technology and managing remote/hybrid work are the top 3 disruptors according to healthcare executives surveyed.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Recruiting top talent

Cited as the biggest disruptor internally, recruiting top talent will be key to the success of Proprio. In a market where there is always consumer need for better patient outcome, it comes down to who can provide the best outcome. To do so, the best minds must be hired. Luckily, as a current Professor at University of Washington, Samuel Browd has access to a large pool of researchers and students at a school that consistently ranks amongst the top 3 schools receiving the most National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant funding.

👩‍💻 Adopting technology

As a provider of AR tools, it is obviously great that Proprio is an external disruptor causing change in the industry. To adapt to technological changes, the healthcare industry has just two options: (1) block the tech with regulations or, (2) adopt it. Given that Proprio just received their 510(k) FDA approval for the use of AR in spine surgery, blocking the tech is out of the question. This leaves them with one option; adopt it. Looking at PitchBook’s exit predictor, it makes sense that there’s a 72% chance of exit through M&A.

🏘️ Managing working arrangements 

As a developer of tools for healthcare specialists, Proprio is in a unique position to be able to offer flexible working arrangements. The data from a McKinsey & Co report shows that 31% of healthcare workers work remotely full-time while 14% do so part-time. For healthcare, this is surprisingly high so Proprio will have to find a way to match these numbers. That being said, the startup has a very strong focus on Seattle, requiring all of its employees to be located there (based on current job openings). This may put a dent in growth as Proprio might have a hard time emmigrating the best minds on Neurology & AR towards Seattle which only ranks 8th in the US, based on cities with the most healthcare startups (Arkenea).

💭 Concluding thoughts.

As a provider of new technology to healthcare (biggest external disruptor), Proprio is placing itself in front of a market that demands for better results - something Proprio can deliver. Their success depends on how effectively they can recruit talent to continuously improve their tool’s effect on patient outcomes and managing operational activities such as funding and team management.

💻️ Careers at Proprio: Click here.
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