Here's an interesting stat from Aescape about the US massage industry: "[the U.S. massage therapy industry is experiencing revenue loss of up to $4bn annually due to a shortage of more than 29,000 therapists, with 82% of resort/hotel spas and 71% of day spas reporting staff shortages." One of the overlooked elements of the musculoskeletal space, Aescape's robotic massage seems like a really interesting way to address this shortfall through robotics. They've raised a ton of money thus far (~50mn and counting) and it'll be interesting to see how "robotic massage" compares to the human element. (May 2024)