Icaros

ICAROS
Information
Industry	Fitness and rehabilitation equipment, virtual reality exergames
Founded	2015
Founder	Johannes Scholl, Michael Schmidt
Headquarters	Martinsried, near Munich, Germany
Notable Personnel	Johannes Scholl (CEO), Julian Reich (CSO)
Products	ICAROS Health, ICAROS Guardian, ICAROS Cloud, I.S.T. Board, ICARACE
Website	https://www.icaros.com

Icaros (stylized ICAROS; legally ICAROS GmbH) is a German company that makes exercise and therapy devices paired with virtual reality and screen-based exergames. It was co-founded in 2015 by the industrial designers Johannes Scholl and Michael Schmidt and is based in Martinsried, near Munich.

The company's first machine had the user lie in a plank position, with knees, elbows and forearms in foam-padded cups and a handle in each hand, while wearing a VR headset; tilting the device with the core, back and leg muscles steered a flight over landscapes or a dive through underwater scenes. By April 2017 about 200 gyms and entertainment centers had installed it. In later years Icaros moved toward physiotherapy and rehabilitation, and as of October 2026 its range consists of the ICAROS Health (sold as a Class I medical device), the ICAROS Guardian balance trainer, the inflatable ICAROS Cloud and the foot-controlled I.S.T. Board, all driven by the company's exergame apps.

Reviewed 7 October 2026. History, awards, funding, prices, current products, management, ICARACE and the 2026 DZSM study checked against the cited press, icaros.com and journal pages. About review dates.

History

Origins at HYVE

Icaros is a spin-off of the Munich innovation agency HYVE, which Michael Schmidt had founded. Johannes Scholl did an internship at HYVE in 2011, when the two had the first idea for the device, and they worked on the concept as a side project in evenings and on weekends before turning it into a business. The company says the idea was to combine "the dream of flying" with active movement. The founders built a prototype with an early version of the Oculus Rift and first showed it in public at the re:publica digital conference in Berlin in May 2015. After the response there they set up ICAROS GmbH as a subsidiary of HYVE to bring the device to market.

Launch (2015-2016)

New Atlas reported in December 2015 that Icaros was taking pre-orders for the machine at about 7,500 euros before VAT and shipping; the package included a Samsung Gear VR headset, and deliveries were scheduled for late March 2016. The launch version worked with the Oculus Rift and the Samsung Gear VR, and its handlebar controller ran for four to five hours per charge. Icaros was aiming it at gyms and hotels rather than home users at that stage, and it had won an ISPO BrandNew award.

According to Munich Startup, Icaros began delivering units to customers in April 2016. All production took place in Germany: assembly in the Allgäu region, electronics from Düsseldorf and housings from Nuremberg. More than 3,000 people had tried the device at trade shows and events by August 2016; one unit was being measured by sports scientists at the Technical University of Munich, and the German Sport University Cologne was due to begin its own tests at the end of that month. The machine received a Red Dot Honourable Mention for product design in 2016, with the design credited to HYVE Innovation Design (Johannes Scholl and Michael Schmidt). It was also one of 12 finalists for the 2016 FIBO Innovation and Trend Awards at the FIBO fitness trade show in Cologne; Munich Startup reported in August 2016 that it took second place.

Growth and funding (2017-2019)

When Bloomberg reported on it in April 2017, the commercial machine cost about 10,000 US dollars including shipping and other costs, and about 200 gyms and entertainment centers from London to Tokyo had installed it. A Bloomberg reporter worked up a sweat after about 10 minutes on the medium setting and compared the effort to a plank exercise. A home version priced at about 2,000 US dollars was then in development. In a 2017 Health Club Management feature, Schmidt said research with universities in Munich and Cologne had found that the device used 30 percent more energy than other core exercises. The magazine summarized a three-month Technical University of Munich study with nine female and six male students, in which playing the ICAROS game used 30 percent more energy and produced twice the muscle activity of an elbow plank with the knees placed on the floor. It gave the price of a machine as 7,009 pounds (7,900 euros), including a staff training program.

In June 2018 the Tyrolean private venture capital firm Segnalita invested a mid seven-figure sum in Icaros. Icaros said the money would be used to enter new markets and to speed up research and development in the health segment. By then the company had taken part in the German Accelerator program and had moved from Munich's university district to a larger office in Martinsried. VR Fitness Insider reported at the time that the new ICAROS Home cost 2,380 euros against 8,400 euros for the ICAROS Pro, that the machines worked with the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR, and that the range included Home, Pro, R and Health variants.

In November 2018 Icaros opened a shop at Schießstättstraße 24 in Munich's Westend district, with an experience floor for events planned in another part of the store. Visitors could test and buy the ICAROS Home there (offered online for 2,380 euros) and try the ICAROS Pro, priced from 8,400 euros according to the company's website, and the ICAROS R, a motorcycle racing simulator, from 7,400 euros. The shop also sold tickets for a set number of flight sessions in the online multiplayer race ICARACE.

Shift to therapy (2020-2026)

The ICAROS Cloud, a partly inflatable balance board, won a UX Design Award in the product category in 2020. It uses the gyroscope and acceleration sensors of a mounted smartphone or tablet as its measuring instrument and that device's screen and sound for output; VR headsets can also be used. The later product line is aimed mainly at clinics, physiotherapy practices and rehabilitation centers, with the company describing its mission as taking users "from patient to athlete".

Michael Schmidt was chief executive from 2015 to 2024; Johannes Scholl is now CEO and Julian Reich chief sales officer. The company's imprint lists Reich and Scholl as managing directors of ICAROS GmbH (Munich local court, HRB 220712), with an address at Fraunhoferstraße 5 in Martinsried. In August 2026 Icaros moved from the second to the fourth floor of its building and opened a new showroom there.

Products

The table lists the systems on the company's product pages in October 2026, with list prices as published there.

Product	Description	Listed price
ICAROS Health	Lying-position core and balance trainer for orthopedic and neurological rehabilitation; sold as a Class I medical device with support and entry aids; PC and VR headset not included	From 24,900 euros excl. VAT
ICAROS Guardian	Standing balance and stability trainer with handrails for clinics, rehabilitation and senior living; delivered with an iPad for app control, plus an Apple TV and screen for group use	From 14,900 euros excl. VAT
ICAROS Cloud	Compact full-body trainer for homes, boutique studios and gym classes; controlled through the ICAROS App on a smartphone or tablet over Bluetooth	From 1,400 euros incl. VAT
I.S.T. Board	Lightweight foot-controlled board for balance, reaction and lower-limb mobilization, usable while seated; needs about 60 x 50 cm of space	750 euros excl. VAT
ICAROS Circle	Bundle of the ICAROS Health, Guardian, Cloud and I.S.T. Board for rehabilitation facilities	On request

Earlier machines included the ICAROS Pro for gyms, the ICAROS Home and the ICAROS R motorcycle racing simulator. The company's 2026 news posts also refer to an ICAROS Lightning system, which it says became part of the training area of the new Peterka Arena, an ice arena in Dorfen, when the arena opened in June 2026.

XR work

Icaros makes its own exergames. Its current catalog includes FLIGHT (a glacier landscape with sightseeing, course and shooter modes), DEEP (an underwater world), GRAVITY (a freefall race from space toward Earth), AIM (an alpine score-attack game), ENGADIN (real landscapes built with 3D Reality Maps), the regional titles DOLOMITEN and BERCHTESGADEN, EXPLORE, the therapy-management software EVOLVE and the ICAROS App. The company says the apps run on several VR headsets, tablets and screens. In August 2026 Icaros announced that a multiplayer mode was being added to the ICAROS App.

ICARACE is an online multiplayer racing game played on ICAROS Pro or Home devices with PC-based VR headsets such as the HTC Vive Pro, Valve Index or Oculus Quest 2 (with a PC connection). It is free to download; full access to all vehicles and tracks requires a subscription of 116 euros per year. Icaros started the Global ICARACE Series in 2018 for online and in-person tournaments, held world championships in Germany from 2018 to 2022, and staged the 2023 edition on 1 July 2023 at the Level Up Gaming and eSports Festival in Salzburg, Austria.

Research

Several studies have used Icaros equipment. A proof-of-concept study by researchers at the German Sport University Cologne and the Cellitinnen Hospital St. Marien, published in the German Journal of Sports Medicine in 2026, gave six weeks of exergame training on the ICAROS Guardian to community-dwelling older adults and three weeks to geriatric rehabilitation patients. Participants stood on the device's balance board and steered the games by shifting their weight. Both groups improved on cognitive (MoCA), Timed Up and Go, gait speed and sit-to-stand measures; the study had no control group, and one author is a member of the ICAROS GmbH scientific board. Icaros also reports results from a German Sport University Cologne study of stroke patients on the Guardian, which it says has not yet been published, and from a University of California, Los Angeles study of shoulder position sense in college baseball players after two minutes of training on the ICAROS Lightning. The I.S.T. Board was used in a pilot project on play-based exercise for children during dialysis at the University Hospital of Cologne.

See also

• Virtual reality therapy
• Flight simulation