Operating rooms are the beating heart of every hospital, yet for decades, they’ve run like traffic lights without sensors. Surgeons waiting, nurses guessing, patients delayed, and millions quietly bleeding out of hospital budgets. VitVio just flipped that script with an $8M seed round that feels less like funding and more like the ignition switch for a new era of surgical precision. The round was led by Bek Ventures (formerly Earlybird Digital East), with returning believers LDV Capital and Tiny Supercomputer Investment Company joining the mix, plus new fuel from Balnord, Thornapple River Capital, industry veteran Joe Mullings, and ElevenLabs co-founder Mati Staniszewski.
Boston-based VitVio isn’t just tossing buzzwords around. Founded in June 2023 by Thomas Knox (CEO), Dr. Peter Rennert (CTO), Maks Kozarzewski (COO), and Aleks Pajewski (CPO), this crew has real engineering DNA. Knox built product systems at AiFi that scaled faster than Amazon Go, Rennert sold his computer vision startup ThirdEye Labs to Standard AI before rewriting their video architecture to save millions, and Kozarzewski and Pajewski brought a new generation’s precision, both Forbes-honored, both raised on data and drive. Together, they’re building what they call the “operating system for the operating room.”
The tech is wild. VitVio digitizes ORs in 3D using computer vision and ambient sensing. It tracks who’s doing what, when, where, and why, then lets AI agents handle the admin nobody wants to touch, logging phases, coordinating staff, predicting completion times, and flagging delays before they spiral. It’s HIPAA- and GDPR-compliant, runs on anonymized feeds, and syncs seamlessly with hospital systems. Think of it as a surgical autopilot for everything but the scalpel.
Numbers tell the story hospitals can’t ignore: ORs make up ~40% of hospital expenses and 60% of revenue, yet inefficiencies burn ~$1.4M per room annually. Multiply that by 35,870 ORs across the U.S., and you’re staring at a $50B problem waiting for a fix. VitVio’s already proving its worth with The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, named one of the world’s best by Newsweek, and is now in talks with 9 of the top 15 U.S. hospitals. Paid pilots only. No free trials, no maybes, just results.
Bek Ventures’ Cem Sertoglu said it best: “This isn’t theoretical AI, it’s operationally impactful tech that pays for itself.” And he’s not wrong. VitVio’s platform turns surgical chaos into choreography, freeing clinicians to focus on patients while giving hospitals the one thing they’ve been chasing forever, time.
The legacy behind the name runs deep. Thomas Knox registered VitVio with his father before his passing, a promise born out of loss and rebuilt into purpose. Today, that purpose is clear: making every second in the OR count.