Kinomatic Nets $4 Million in Initial Funding Round

Kinomatic has closed a $4 million seed round led by Waterline Ventures. The funding follows a period of accelerated growth during which the company increased revenue sevenfold over four years, expanded its provider network fivefold, and achieved a world-class Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 85.

The funding will be used to scale the company in critical roles, open a new office, and continue developing its artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled surgical planning platform, with a focus on optimizing long-term, opioid-sparing outcomes in the pre-op and recovery phases of total knee and hip replacement surgery.

Kinomatic’s AI-powered platform spans the surgical continuum across four core capabilities: custom pre-operative 3D modeling tailored to each patient’s unique anatomy; VR surgical simulation that allows surgeons to rehearse the procedure before entering the operating room; post operative recovery optimization; long-term outcomes tracking, and concierge-level care.

“Kinomatic is uniting technology and patient care to deliver a new gold standard, where every aspect of surgery is optimized, with the goal of a knee or hip that feels so natural that patients forget they ever had surgery,” Kinomatic CEO Shaun Lea said. “Patients expect more than just ‘good enough’ from their care. Longevity is no longer a fringe concept, and patients having these surgeries are thinking ahead to what the next 20 to 30 years look like.”

In addition to the funding, Kinomatic announced that Andrew B. Wickline, M.D., has been hired as chief medical officer. Dr. Wickline is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon who helped pioneer advanced, patient-centric protocols that accelerate post-operative recovery. He developed March2aMillion, a national nonprofit initiative to reduce opioid dependency in orthopedic surgery through education, surgeon enrollment, and advocacy. Dr. Wickline will focus on enhancing Kinomatic’s post-operative recovery protocols by implementing a new state-of-the-art recovery program he developed while researching recovery optimization.

For decades, orthopedic surgery has relied on generic alignment parameters applied across patients. This approach fails to take a patient’s unique biomechanics into account, limiting recovery and successful outcomes. Further, while surgical technique and implant technology have advanced, the post-operative experience has remained limited, leaving patients to navigate their recovery alone. Combining AI-enabled surgical planning and VR-enabled surgical simulations, Kinomatic assists clinicians in completing surgeries more quickly and accurately, improves prosthesis sizing accuracy, and accelerates the patient’s postoperative functional recovery, company bigwigs claim.

“For too long, recovery has been the forgotten phase of joint replacement. Patients are left to navigate the hardest part of the procedure largely on their own, often with a bottle of opioids as their only tool,” Dr. Wickline stated. “What Kinomatic has built changes that equation entirely. By combining precision pre-operative planning with a concierge recovery model built around a patient’s unique anatomy and biology, we can begin to close the gap between a great surgery and a great outcome.”

The company’s platform analyzes over 2 million data points from more than 1,000 unique measurements per patient to select the optimal match from more than 30,000 possible implant configurations. This level of detail enables biomechanical precision that standard 2D templating and one-size-fits-all approaches cannot match.

“Total hip and knee replacements are among the fastest-growing surgical categories in the country. Kinomatic focuses on improving recovery outcomes for patients and surgeons. Kinomatic’s platform is built around the patient, providing data and tools that were previously unavailable to their surgeon. The company has partnered with surgeons around the country, and is well-positioned for growth within this market,” Waterline Ventures Managing Partner Robbie Greenglass concluded.

Founded in 2021, Kinomatic claims to be the only end-to-end pre- and post-surgical partner purpose-built around joint replacement recovery, where long-term outcomes are ultimately determined. Kinomatic is an AI- and VR-driven orthopedic surgery planning and aftercare firm dedicated to optimizing outcomes for knee and hip joint replacement patients. The Arroyo Grande, Calif., company combines service-enabled technology with a concierge patient experience that wraps around the surgeon’s workflow.