News
| Iceland Monitor
| Sat 10 Oct 2026
| 13.03 GMT
| Modified
at
16.38
Icelandic innovation company Flow signs U.S. distribution agreement
Entrepreneur Tristan uses virtual reality glasses that enable meditation. More information about the technology is available at flow.is.
mbl.is/Karítas
Icelandic innovation company Flow has signed a distribution agreement with U.S. company USVetServe, opening a pathway for the company to bring Icelandic meditation and wellbeing technology to American veterans.
Tristan Elizabeth Gribbin, founder and CEO of Flow, explains to the journalist in fluent Icelandic that the agreement was signed in early autumn. It gives Flow access to a large U.S. market where virtual reality and other digital technologies are increasingly being used to support the health and wellbeing of veterans.
“We have developed a digital solution that combines Icelandic nature, meditation, music and virtual reality to support mental wellbeing. But Flow is much more than virtual reality. The same content can be accessed through a VR headset, phone, tablet, computer or television, allowing Flow to accompany people both within healthcare settings and at home. That matters because healthcare doesn’t end when someone takes off the headset,” says Gribbin.
She invites the journalist to experience the technology by putting on a VR headset and headphones. Suddenly, it feels as though you have been transported into the Icelandic landscape, and everything else fades away for a while.
Focusing on healthcare in recent years
“We have increasingly focused on healthcare in recent years,” Gribbin says. “Our new distribution agreement with USVetServe supports Flow’s expansion into the U.S. market. The company is led by its founder and CEO, Don Lee, who has extensive experience bringing technology solutions into the U.S. federal system. USVetServe handles sales and distribution, while Flow provides the technology and content. The agreement therefore gives us a route into a market that can otherwise be extremely difficult for a small Icelandic company to enter.”
Flow has also been in discussions with representatives of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) about potential collaboration.
According to Gribbin, the VA is already well advanced in its use of virtual reality in healthcare, with meditation, relaxation and stress management among the ways the technology is being used to support veterans’ health and wellbeing.
“This is no longer a small virtual reality experiment in a single department. The VA has built up work in this field across more than 90 hospitals and healthcare facilities, and there is a professional network within the VA of more than 3,000 members involved in the development and use of the technology. Clinical guidelines and training have been developed, along with procedures that can even enable veterans to use VR headsets at home.
Important milestone in Flow’s history
“For Flow, that means we don’t have to start by convincing the VA that virtual reality has a place in healthcare. The infrastructure is already being built. Our opportunity is to bring Icelandic content and our own approach into this growing system,” Gribbin says.
Gribbin describes the USVetServe agreement as an important milestone in Flow’s history. Behind the company is a team led by Gribbin that includes Þóra Björk Elvarsdóttir, Chief Financial Officer, and Stefán Árni Þorgeirsson, Flow’s Creative Director.
Flow being used in a study for pre-operative Breast Cancer Patients at Champalimaud Foundation.
In recent years, the company has placed increasing emphasis on the U.S. market. In September 2025, Gribbin presented Flow at the Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the invitation of Business Iceland. In January of this year, she appeared at MIT Reality Hack at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Gribbin was born and raised in Northern California, but her interest in meditation became a serious pursuit after she moved to Iceland. Around the turn of the millennium, she attended a nine-day meditation retreat at Skálholt, an experience she says had a profound effect on her.
“I came back a changed woman. When I got home, I felt like a tiger. I was so strong,” says Gribbin, who has practised meditation ever since.
What led you to found Flow?
“In 2015, I had the idea of combining meditation with new technology, although at the time I had no idea that virtual reality would become such an important part of it. I took the idea into Startup Reykjavík with a small team, and that was where the development of Flow began. Initially, I was thinking more along the lines of a smartphone app, but then this whole new world of virtual reality opened up,” Gribbin says.
A turning point
Gribbin gained a deeper understanding of VR’s potential when she took part in a project by Icelandic company Sólfar for the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. She provided the voice of Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei, the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, in a virtual reality experience that transports the user onto the mountain. It was there that Gribbin began to see how powerfully the technology could create the sensation of actually being somewhere else.
A turning point came in 2022, when Gribbin attended an international conference on virtual reality in healthcare in Lisbon. There she met Anne Lord Bailey, Executive Director of the Strategic Initiatives Lab at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), who has been at the forefront of VR implementation within the organization.
“That was when I began to see much more clearly how Flow could fit into healthcare,” Gribbin says.
She subsequently met Jessica Benson, founder of Immersive Care, who later introduced her to Don Lee. Those connections have now led to Flow’s distribution agreement with USVetServe.
Will you need to move Flow’s operations to the United States to pursue this opportunity?
“No. Flow will remain an Icelandic company. We have built a distribution network and can market and sell the solution in the United States from here in Reykjavík,” Gribbin says.
Does the USVetServe agreement make it easier for you to find other partners?
“Yes. We have worked for a long time on developing Flow, and we are now beginning to see the results of that work. It is very important that we are not entering the U.S. market with just an idea, but with experience from the Icelandic healthcare system.
“For the past three years, we have worked with the hematology and oncology department at Landspítali – The National University Hospital of Iceland. The collaboration began with a two-year agreement funded by Lífskraftur, after which Landspítali took over and renewed the agreement. That experience strengthens our position when we speak with potential new partners abroad,” Gribbin says.
What does the USVetServe agreement mean for Flow?
“The agreement is very significant for us and opens up new opportunities in the United States. With support from Rannís – the Icelandic Centre for Research – we are currently working on market development for Flow in U.S. healthcare. This is the third grant Flow has received from Rannís. The USVetServe agreement is an important milestone on that journey,” Gribbin says.
Next on Flow’s calendar is its annual meditation retreat, which will be held at Kleif in Kjós from October 18–24 under the guidance of Tristan and Peter Sterios, founder of Manduka™ and an internationally recognized meditation and yoga teacher.
