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The London-based healthtech company, which lets clinicians practise emergencies and difficult conversations in virtual reality, will use the capital to deepen its US footprint and accelerate AI-driven product development.
Oxford Medical Simulation has raised £5 million in growth financing from Salica Investments, the London-based investment firm formerly known as Hambro Perks. The funding will support OMS’s expansion into US health systems and academic institutions, alongside investment in AI-driven simulation scenarios, learning analytics, and workflow tooling.
OMS builds virtual reality simulation software for the healthcare sector, giving nurses, doctors, and allied health professionals a way to practise clinical scenarios, emergencies, difficult conversations, procedures, anytime and anywhere, without putting real patients at risk.
The platform runs on both VR headsets and standard screens, and pairs immersive scenarios with evidence-based feedback and performance analytics that let institutions track readiness across their entire workforce.
Founded in 2017 by clinicians, the company now works with hospitals, health systems, and universities across the US, UK, and internationally. It currently delivers upwards of 35,000 simulations per month, and in its Series A announcement in January 2024 cited a 74% reduction in staffing and equipment costs compared to traditional physical simulation methods.
“This financing allows us to invest confidently in the next phase of OMS,” said Michael Wallace, CEO of Oxford Medical Simulation. “Our partners in US healthcare and academia are focused on outcomes, safer practice, better-prepared staff and more efficient delivery. This growth capital from Salica means we can move faster on exactly those priorities: expanding our breadth and depth of content, deepening our analytics capabilities, and supporting more institutions to transform their training for the new generation of learners.”
The urgency of the problem OMS is addressing has sharpened over recent years. Healthcare workforce shortages, high staff turnover, and the growing complexity of clinical training, particularly for nurses transitioning from education to practice, have pushed institutions to look beyond traditional simulation centres and mannequin-based training.
OMS’s own figures, cited repeatedly in its prior funding announcements, put the share of graduating nurses who feel unprepared for clinical practice at 91%.
On the technology side, OMS has been integrating AI more deeply into its scenarios. Its Hands & Voice product, launched in recent months, replaces menu-driven interactions with fully voice-controlled simulation, using large language models to power natural patient dialogue and an emotion and physiology engine to generate realistic patient responses.
The platform also supports multiplayer interprofessional scenarios, allowing a doctor and nurse in different locations to manage the same virtual patient together, a use case with direct relevance to remote and distributed clinical teams.
Salica Investments, which rebranded from Hambro Perks in 2024, operates a multi-fund structure covering equity and growth debt for high-growth UK and European companies. Tracxn records it as an active investor with around 150 portfolio companies.
The OMS deal comes from its growth debt offering, the firm operates a Growth Debt Fund (currently raising Fund II at a target of £150 million, with anchor commitments from the British Business Bank and West Yorkshire Pension Fund) that provides senior secured loans to high-growth software and IP-rich businesses across the UK. The OMS investment is explicitly described as growth financing rather than equity.
“Oxford Medical Simulation is exactly the type of business we look to support. The team has built a differentiated platform, proven at scale, and is working with leading health systems and universities to address a critical need: giving clinicians and students the chance to practise safely. We are delighted to back OMS as they scale their impact across healthcare and education,” saidUsman Ali, Partner at one of the funds at Salica Investments.
The funding is OMS’s largest disclosed raise since its £10 million ($12.6 million) Series A in January 2024, which was led by Frog Capital with follow-on from ACF Investors and existing shareholders.
Prior to that, the company raised £2.1 million in 2022 in a round that included ACF Investors and angel investor Dr Nicolaus Henke, former chairman of QuantumBlack and former head of McKinsey’s global healthcare practice. PitchBook records total funding of approximately $19.7 million to date, consistent with the addition of this new round.
OMS is registered in England and Wales (Company No. 10587122) and has a US entity based in Somerville, Massachusetts, reflecting the growing weight of its American customer base, which has become the primary target for this latest round.
Ana-Maria Stanciuc Read More