Floreo Closes $10 million Series A Funding Round and Announces Important Business Milestones
Virtual Reality Behavioral Therapy Platform Also Receives Approval for CPT III Code from American Medical Association
Begins Pilot With CareSource, a National Managed Care Organization
Floreo, a pioneering virtual reality (VR) platform that teaches social, communication, emotional regulation and independent living skills for individuals with autism, ADHD, anxiety and other neurodiverse conditions, has closed a Series A funding round, led by Tenfore Holdings. Other investors in the round include Felton Group, Autism Impact Fund, and Disability Opportunity Fund. The company has also reached several additional milestones, including an industry-first American Medical Association issued Category III Current Procedural Terminology Code (CPT) for virtual reality technology to assist therapy. Floreo has also entered into a pilot program with CareSource, a national managed care organization with over 2 million members to provide VR therapy to their participants.
Since its launch in 2016, Floreo’s mission has been to create the first behavioral therapy metaverse, a virtual world that is safe for learners, equipping them with skills and tools they can apply in their everyday lives. To-date, Floreo’s innovative technology has been utilized in more than 45,000 lessons for individual learners in clinics, schools, and homes.
“Floreo’s vision is a world that is open and accessible for every neurodiverse person, and this new funding round led by Tenfore Holdings will enable us to further scale our platform to reach more individuals and families who can benefit from our technology,” said Vijay Ravindran, Floreo’s Founder and CEO. “In addition, the CPT code from the American Medical Association, together with our pilot with CareSource, a major national health plan, are evidence of the viable reimbursement pathways of our virtual reality system for a wide range of learners,” added Mr. Ravindran.
“Our investment in Floreo reflects our conviction in their platform, together with Vijay and team. The company is serving a large and growing market through a highly differentiated, scalable, and accessible technology model,” said Dan Levine, Managing Partner of Tenfore Holdings.
Customer Growth and Business Momentum
Floreo’s business and platform have gained significant momentum during 2022. Today, the company’s VR platform has been deployed by over 100 providers, including public and private schools, as well as local and national behavioral therapy providers. And in the last twelve months, Floreo has more than doubled its customer base, adding to its customer list some of the largest clinical practices in the U.S. and abroad, school districts across the country, large commercial payers and several state government agencies.
The new CPT 3 code, 0770T goes into effect in January 2023 and enables qualified health care providers to report on their use of virtual reality as part of therapy as a practice expenses. This is the first VR therapy code in the mental and behavioral health space and represents a breakthrough for Floreo’s pioneering technology.
Additionally, Floreo and CareSource have entered into a groundbreaking pilot program through CareSource-approved provider Arkansas Support Network (“ASN”). The goal of the program is to further explore and validate the benefits of using VR to provide individuals receiving home and community-based services with a safe and engaging virtual environment that can promote skills for independent living, build self-determination, and increase a variety of outcomes associated with quality of life.
Through the arrangement with ASN, VR assessments and interventions will be provided by a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) from ASN’s behavioral health department. Selective sampling will be utilized, and participants must be service recipients of both ASN and CareSource. Each participant will begin by engaging in a life assessment through a proprietary tool developed by ASN that will capture key quality of life measures that are important to each participant, set a vision for an environment that provides calming stimulation and identifies areas for individual life skill development. Virtual reality environments will then be selected to interface with the identified goals of their person-centered plan.
During the skills learning interventions, the participant will be immersed into a virtual environment that has been individually selected in accordance with their treatment plan to provide appropriate environmental conditions and skills training instructions.
“At ASN we are continually looking for innovative approaches to supporting individuals with disabilities to live rewarding and meaningful lives in their communities, and we believe that virtual reality offers promising opportunities for folks with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities to acquire and enhance skills that can empower and support them to live with a increased independence and quality of life.” said Syard Evans, Chief Executive Officer of Arkansas Support Network. “We’re excited to partner with Floreo and CareSource as we continue to work toward more innovative and better-quality home and community-based support options for Arkansans with disabilities,” added Ms. Evans.
“Our platform is scaling rapidly based on the demonstrated efficacy of our technology, and the high demand among providers, educators and families for accessible and cost-effective innovative solutions such as our VR technology,” added Mr. Ravindran.
