Bethesda, MD (December 1, 2022) – The American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) today announced that the association’s new venture capital fund, GI Opportunity Fund 1, completed its first investment, rounding out the Series A financing of Virgo Surgical Video Solutions (“Virgo”) of Carlsbad, California.
“While AGA has long guided innovators who share our goal of improving digestive health care, we have doubled down on this commitment by establishing the GI Innovation Fund. The fund’s first investment- Virgo- exemplifies our pursuit of improved clinical care,” says Lawrence Kosinski, MD, AGAF, AGA Governing Board Councilor for Development and Growth. “Through our venture fund, gastroenterologists can join AGA to invest in fast-growing, early-stage companies that are transforming care for patients with digestive disease.”
Virgo provides gastroenterologists, clinical trial sponsors, and trial site investigators with AI-fueled, always-on endoscopic procedure recording and patient recruitment tools for clinical trials in gastroenterology, starting with inflammatory bowel disease clinical trials.
“Virgo would not be where it is today without the support of the AGA, dating back to our initial pitch at the AGA Tech Summit’s Shark Tank competition in 2018,” said Matt Schwartz, Virgo co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. “Virgo is proud to have the support of the AGA, and this investment will help accelerate Virgo’s mission to improve patient outcomes and clinical workflows by developing automation and AI tools for endoscopy.”
“As its partner in the GI Opportunity Fund, Varia shares the AGA’s passion of supporting exciting innovations that benefit the GI field. Our partnership is designed, however, to do more than that. We firmly believe that this fund can also create an unusual opportunity for members interested in venture capital investing at an unusually low entry point. We believe we can accomplish these multiple objectives by making investments in companies like Virgo Surgical Video Solutions. Its video capture, management, and artificial intelligence analysis technology platform holds great promise for advancing the field of endoscopic medicine,” said Scott Friedman, Varia Ventures co-founder and managing partner.
More information about the AGA’s GI Opportunity Fund 1 is available at https://againvest.varia.com/.
About Virgo
Virgo provides the leading cloud video capture, management, and artificial intelligence analysis platform for endoscopic medicine. Academic, integrated, and private practice healthcare providers use the Virgo platform to advance patient care through video-based research and training initiatives. Since launching, Virgo has helped physicians capture over 400,000 endoscopy procedures using industry-leading HIPAA, HITRUST, and SOC 2-compliant cloud service providers. Virgo also supports integration with all leading electronic health records systems. In 2021, Virgo launched a suite of tools called VirgoTrials, which help pharmaceutical trial sponsors and their participating trial sites accelerate patient recruitment and shorten the overall enrollment period for trials. For more information, visit www.virgosvs.com.
About AGA
The American Gastroenterological Association is the trusted voice of the GI community. Founded in 1897, AGA has grown to more than 16,000 members from around the globe who are involved in all aspects of the science, practice and advancement of gastroenterology. The AGA Institute administers the practice, research and educational programs of the organization. For more information, visit www.gastro.org.
The AGA Center for GI Innovation and Technology supports innovation and the development of new technology in gastroenterology, hepatology, nutrition and obesity by guiding medical device and therapeutics innovators through the technology development and adoption process.
About Varia Ventures
Varia Ventures is a next-generation venture capital platform for professional organizations interested in building wealth for themselves and their members through investing in a portfolio of highly curated, emerging companies originating from their organizations. Varia’s platform blends insights from key opinion leaders, strategic partners, and industry experts through its “end-to-end” technology solution designed to both support early-stage companies while providing compelling investment opportunities to its investors. For more information, visit variaventures.com.