Oto, a Tinnitus-focused tech-health startup, has secured a $3.3 million seed investment!

Tinnitus-focused digital health startup Oto, with its headquarters in London, has secured a $3.3 million seed investment. This funding round comes after the pre-seed round in December 20221 and the conclusion of the famed Y Combinator program’s W22 cohort.

To speed its path to profitability, Oto plans to use the funds from this round to intensify its efforts to achieve a precise product-market fit. To do this, it will make sure that its products precisely meet the needs of an extremely underserved group.

According to Kamran Adle, an investor at Octopus Ventures, “Many people with tinnitus have little alternative but to ‘learn to live with’ their disease. The Oto team, on the other hand, rejects habituation and instead offers a 10x more affordable and practical solution to assist people in managing their illness. We all know someone who has tinnitus and has witnessed the negative consequences it may have on a person’s life, even though they probably don’t complain about it. This is one of the reasons we wanted to help George, Ed, and the entire Oto team as they take on the market and offer a cutting-edge digital remedy to a problem that has gone unaddressed for a very long time.

The impact of tinnitus, a chronic ailment with no known solution, may be profound for people who experience it, according to Oto co-founder Dr. Ed Farrar. For this reason, he added, “this raise is tremendously important to us. At any moment, having a round that is oversubscribed is a big accomplishment for which we are incredibly proud. However, given the current state of the investment market, founding teams must be more deliberate in their use of funding.

Around 50 million people in the US and UK currently have tinnitus, which is defined as ringing in the ears. Of them, 20 million experience intrusive tinnitus, a condition that can have a significant negative impact on a person’s life. Oto is a digital health firm that enables people to obtain evidence-based treatment for undiagnosed and undertreated chronic diseases. It was founded by doctors George Leidig and Edmund Farrar.

Tinnitus is difficult to live with. The Oto app demonstrates how to control the ringing using methods that have been clinically tested. Its goal is to make tinnitus sufferers aware of where they can go right away for assistance. Anyone who has tinnitus can get psychological help from its first offering. Based on their clinical expertise and individual experiences with the ailment, the team came up with a novel approach. The first digital tinnitus treatment to receive venture funding is Oto.

Its innovative, scientifically supported support program delivered via mobile app aids in managing what may be a severely debilitating ailment. The smartphone app gathers and unifies the most recent therapeutic approaches to help people enhance their quality of life while living with tinnitus. An experienced group of audiologists, physicians, therapists, and researchers who have years of tinnitus management experience behind them established the platform.

Image Credit: Oto