Xploro, a pediatric-focused digital health startup founded in the U.K., has opened a U.S. headquarters after receiving funding from two health system venture capital arms and hiring the former chief innovation officer of Akron (Ohio) Children's Hospital.
The funding round included Cleveland-based University Hospitals Ventures — through its Healthcare Collaboration Fund with venture capital nonprofit JumpStart Inc. — as well as Baltimore-based LifeBridge Health and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield. Xploro previously participated in LifeBridge and CareFirst's health tech accelerator, 1501 Health.
Xploro, founded in 2019, relocated to Cleveland with the investment, co-founder and CEO Dom Raban posted Jan. 23 on LinkedIn.
"With University Hospitals already a customer and several other high-profile children's hospitals in the state, Ohio makes perfect sense as a base for us," Mr. Raban wrote. "Not only is it easy to get to centers like Boston, Baltimore and New York on the coast, but it also opens up access to Chicago and the whole of the Midwest (not to mention Canada, just across the lake)."
Stefan Agamanolis, PhD, who was previously chief innovation officer of Akron Children's, also joined as the company's chief strategy officer.
The digital therapeutics startup, which Mr. Raban founded after his daughter's experience with cancer, offers a mobile app that aims to relieve children's stress and anxiety related to hospitalization via games, augmented reality and artificial intelligence.