Portuguese startup SWORD Health lands €20.7 million to boost growth of its virtual musculoskeletal care solution

Porto and New York-based healthtech company SWORD Health, one of the world’s fastest growing virtual musculoskeletal (MSK) care providers, has raised around €20.7 million Series B funding,

bringing SWORD’s cumulative fundraising to around €41.5 million. The round was led by Todd Cozzens, Managing Partner at Transformation Capital and former healthcare investor at Sequoia

Capital. Existing investors Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund, Green Innovations, Vesalius Biocapital and Faber also participated. 

SWORD Health achieved significant commercial success in the last year with eight-fold revenue growth and a nearly five-fold increase in active users in 2020, making it one of the fastest

growing providers of virtual musculoskeletal care delivery. The company, founded in 2015, will use the fresh funds to enhance product capabilities, expand industry partnerships and drive

adoption across the benefits management ecosystem with employers, health plans and alliance partners. 

“This was a breakout year for SWORD Health,” said Virgilio Bento, founder and CEO of SWORD Health. “We grew our client footprint and revenue dramatically and were selected in 75 percent of

evaluations we participated in by employers searching for a better way to provide musculoskeletal care to their populations. SWORD Health is now the fastest growing provider of

musculoskeletal care, and this new round of funding will accelerate our mission to provide high-quality, accessible and effective musculoskeletal care to over two billion people worldwide.” 

According to the World Health Organization, MSK conditions are the world’s leading cause of disability, with low back pain being its single greatest contributor. These conditions

significantly impact one’s ability to work and are commonly linked to depression and other chronic health issues. Demand for digital physical therapy solutions to MSK issues skyrocketed

during the pandemic and, according to the Business Group on Health, will continue to grow exponentially through 2023. 

“We invested in SWORD Health because the Company is solving one of the world’s leading health issues today, musculoskeletal pain, with the most clinically comprehensive MSK digital health

solution,” said Todd Cozzens, co-founder and Managing Partner of Transformation Capital. “Our market research with employers, payers and industry partners confirmed that SWORD Health offers

the leading MSK virtual therapy standard of care for the broadest set of conditions.”

At the core of SWORD Health’s virtual musculoskeletal solution is its FDA-listed ‘Digital Therapist’, which connects in-house ‘Doctors of Physical Therapy’ to SWORD Health members via

wearable motion sensors and a tablet loaded with an AI-powered therapeutic exercise programme. It is one of the only solutions clinically proven to outperform the current gold standard of

care for MSK conditions – traditional physical therapy – and the only to offer rehabilitation programmes for chronic, acute and post-surgical conditions of the lower back, shoulder, neck,

knee, elbow, hip, ankle, wrist and lungs.

“We selected SWORD Health after a robust evaluation process because we believe they provide the safest, most engaging and most effective MSK treatment on the market,” said Jen Lamons,

director of health and welfare at Concordia Plan Services. “They have been a dream to work with, and they have exceeded our expectations over the last year. I can’t wait to see what this

additional funding will ultimately provide our members and the rest of the world.”