Founded in April 2018 and located at VILLAGE by CA in RENNES, SIMANGO (www.simango.fr), specialist in serious game and virtual reality training for hospital staff and health students, reaches a new milestone in its development and seduces Breton funds WEST WEB VALLEY (www.west-web-valley.fr) and BREIZH UP (www.breizhup.bretagne.bzh). The € 1.2 million funding, organised by AGORA (www.agora-growandbehappy.fr), also an investor, will allow SIMANGO to accelerate its conquest of the French market.
A project “off to a flying start”, led by two very complementary founders
Public health doctor and video game creator in his spare time, Vincent-Dozhwal BAGOT (31 years old) did not imagine that the « Room of Errors », the first virtual reality module he designed three years ago, would be so successful. Headsets over their eyes, nurses, caregivers and doctors test their knowledge of hygiene protocols for 25 minutes.
Combining fun and leaning, in an intense format allowing real immersion and efficient learning, the concept is an immediate success.
The meeting a year ago with Guillaume MAQUINAY (35 years old), managing director of a training organisation of which he ensured commercial development and specialist in promotion of health skills, was crucial to tackle the French market and its one million healthcare professionals.
The demand was immediate, other modules needed to be created, SIMANGO was born.
Virtual reality and serious games to revolutionise health training
Employing 10 people, the company helps hospitals improve their employees training. Hygiene protocols, care, emergency procedures, the need for training is very important.
Already a dozen training modules, dividing by nearly 10 the cost of traditional training for better quality of care.
Through SIMANGO, health establishments train their staff more efficiently, with reduced costs and more flexibility. “A day of training costs 1,200 euros per person per day and is often complicated to organise,” explains Vincent-Dozhwal BAGOT, “Considering the room, the travel, the trainer and of course the replacement in the wards, hospitals have to train everyone but do not train on everything they would like.”
“Virtual reality enables real-world learning to be much more efficient and long-term. Studies show that 90% of the knowledge learned in traditional training is forgotten 48 hours later! This is not the case with our solution, which aims to repeat modules several times with a random mode to update and maintain the skill level”, adds Guillaume MAQUINAY.
A great round of investors and a lot of ambition
The potential of SIMANGO did not go unnoticed by WEST WEB VALLEY and BREIZH UP. The amount raised will be used to enrich the training catalogue and accelerate commercial expansion.
“While the solution has only been available since September 2019, SIMANGO has already attracted more than a hundred health facilities, including hospitals, clinics, private non-profit institutions, training institutes, etc. Substantial financial resources are needed to accelerate and deploy the product in France and abroad, with French medical and paramedical skills recognised worldwide.”, emphasises Alexandre GALLOU, Partner of the WEST WEB VALLEY fund.
“E-health and improving the quality of health care are critical issues that we are familiar with at BREIZH UP and SOFIMAC INNOVATION. The relevance of SIMANGO’s positioning in the market for virtual reality training in the field of health combined with the expertise and complementarity of the founders convinced us to support the ambitions of this Breton startup.” explains Stéphane LEFEVRE-SAULI, who led the 20th investment of BREIZH UP.
A fifth operation for AGORA in less than a year
After the fundings of HAPPYWAIT, ASKBLU.AI, HEYLIOT and Wi6LABS, 4 start-ups in Rennes, SIMANGO’s funding concludes 2019, a year of strong development for AGORA and announces an ambitious year 2020.
“These operations brought together a wide variety of investors : regional and national VCs, corporate (companies), family offices, business angels,” Franck BOULLAND, President of AGORA, points out, “Just like the previous ones, the fundraising around SIMANGO respects the DNA and vocation of AGORA : a selection of projects based mainly on the quality of the founders and their ability to project themselves in 10 years and a long-term commitment and support of AGORA at their side by taking an equity stake and participating in post-fund-raising strategic and organisational thinking.”
Company Advisors : Fund raising (AGORA / Franck BOULLAND), Legal & Finance (e-CARE / Jean-François BOHN, Cécile PRIMAULT)
Investors : WEST WEB VALLEY (Alexandre GALLOU), BREIZH’UP (Stéphane LEFEVRE-SAULI), AGORA (Franck BOULLAND)
Investors Advisors : Legal (IDEACT / Maud PARTOUCHE, Carole HADRYS)
Contact : Franck BOULLAND (06 63 27 44 16 / franck@agora-growandbehappy.fr)