FundamentalVR Appoints Chairman

FundamentalVR has named Allan May as chairman of the company. In his role, May will lead the company’s continued growth in the United States and scale its surgical education and data insight platform, Fundamental Surgery. He will also establish a west coast office for the company.
 
Experience
 
May joins FundamentalVR as chairman with decades of experience in funding, leading, and co-founding companies across biotech, Medtech, and diagnostics. He is the founder of Life Science Angels, a Bay Area early-stage investment group that has invested over $70 million in more than 70 biotech, medical device, diagnostics, and mobile health companies. He is also a venture partner at Medtech Convergence Fund, a $90 million seed, and early-stage venture capital fund. May will continue his work with Life Science Angels and Medtech Convergence Fund while serving as chairman at Fundamental VR.
 
In 2007, May co-founded Emergent Medical Partners, a venture fund focused on early-stage medical device companies that have invested $70 million in more than 30 startups. For the last 25 years, May has served as founder, chairman, or CEO at ten startup medical device and diagnostic companies. He has also been an investor in over 65 Medtech, biotech, and diagnostic startups. Recent companies he has co-founded include Nanostim, a developer of a Leadless Cardiac Pacemaker, and Hyalex Surgical, a company that creates synthetic cartilage for total joints.
 
“We are thrilled to have Allan join FundamentalVR as Chairman and look forward to working with him during this time where we have seen interest and adoption of immersive medical technology skyrocketing during COVID,’’ said Richard Vincent, co-founder and CEO of FundamentalVR. “Allan has the experience to help us scale quickly and ensure that all surgeons, residents, and trainees around the world have access to safe and affordable training methods.”
 
Named as one of the best inventions of 2018 by Time magazine and 2019 winners of the SXSW Innovation Award for VR/AR & MR, Fundamental Surgery’s multimodal, multiuser platform was launched in August 2018. Its HapticVR modality combines virtual reality with haptics to create a scalable “flight simulator” experience for trainees and qualified surgeons, allowing them to experience and navigate the same visuals, sounds, and feelings they would during an actual surgical procedure.