European healthtech funding is back on the up in 2024 after two successive years of falling from the record $18.1m raised in 2021.
Startups in the sector have picked up $10.4bn so far this year, according to Sifted data, an increase on the $9.7bn raised in 2023 (comparable Dealroom data).
With more than a month left to play with, and a reporting lag that typically means a number of smaller rounds don’t get clocked until further down the line, that number’s only going to track north.
The biggest raises so far this year are Swiss drug development company EraCal Therapeutics’s €235m and Germany's cancer treatment company ITM Radiopharma’s €188m.
UK-based period tracking app Flo Health, which became Europe’s first femtech unicorn when it raised a $200m Series C in July, also raised big. As did French insurtech Alan, which picked up a €173m Series F in September.
But at the other end of the funding scale, which investors have been driving the most early-stage (pre-seed to Series A) healthtech deals into European startups in 2024?
Sifted dug into its proprietary data — and confirmed the numbers with the most active — to find out. Accelerators were not included. If you think an investor is missing from this list, email kai@sifted.eu.
Calm/Storm
Deals: 33 (10 new, 23 follow-on)
HQ: Vienna
Fund focus: Calm/Storm invests in digital health in Europe and the US. The VC writes cheques of €250k-1m and is investing out of its second fund — which it’s still raising. Calm/Storm tells Sifted that it's closed above the €20m target it set, with a cap of €40m, and it plans to do a final close in Q1 2025.
Notable deals in 2024:
- Béa Fertility, a UK-based fertility startup.
- Meela, a Swedish therapist booking platform.
- Univa, a UK-based startup building digital care tools for eating disorders.
Sofinnova Partners
Deals: 32 (13 new, 19 follow-on)
HQ: Paris, with offices in London and Milan
Fund focus: Sofinnova specialises in life sciences, with a focus on healthcare and sustainability. The fund has $2.8bn in assets under management across seven funds. The VC invests from seed to Series A, with some Series B deals if it’s the first round a company is raising.
Notable deals:
- Asceneuron, a Swiss biotech developing therapeutics for neurodegenerative disorders.
- Freya Biosciences, a Danish startup developing treatment for women’s reproductive health.
- Inventiva, a French biotech developing therapies in the areas of fibrosis, lysosomal storage disorders and oncology.
Elaia Partners
Deals: 29 (10 new, 19 follow-on)
HQ: Paris
Fund focus: Elaia backs startups from inception to IPO across SaaS, healthtech, fintech, marketing and security. Its most recent fund was a €200m pot raised in March 2023.
Notable deals:
- Doccla, a Swedish startup building virtual ward tech.
- Surgar, a French startup developing augmented and virtual reality for surgery.
- Pixacare, a French platform for monitoring wounds.
Zürcher Kantonalbank
Deals: 22 (6 new, 16 follow-on)
HQ: Zurich, Switzerland
Fund focus: Zürcher Kantonalbank is a Swiss bank which backs startups from pre-seed to Series A. It tells Sifted it is one of the most active investors in Switzerland and has supported around 300 startups with $283m in venture capital since 2005.
Notable deals:
- Lymphatica Medtech, a Swiss startup developing a wearable medical device to help patients suffering from lymphatic diseases.
- Hemotune, A Swiss medtech building a device to purify blood.
- Qumea, a Swiss patient monitoring platform.
Scottish Enterprise
Deals: 23
HQ: Glasgow, Scotland
Fund focus: Scottish Enterprise is a government agency and takes a back seat in rounds — investing alongside private lead investors who pitch deals to the organisation. It typically invests in life sciences startups.
Notable deals:
- Nebu-Flow, a Glasgow-based spinout developing drug delivery tech.
- Aurum Biosciences, a Scottish biotech developing a novel drug for therapeutics and multiple diagnostics.
- Novosound, a Scottish spinout developing ultrasound sensors.
Mercia Ventures
Deals: 19 (8 new, 11 follow-on)
HQ: Henley, UK
Fund focus: Mercia invests mainly at seed and Series A, focusing on AI in drug discovery, precision medicine, cell and gene therapy and surgical tech. Mercia has £913m assets under management.
Notable deals:
- Scalpel AI, a UK-based AI-powered platform that tracks surgical instruments.
- Semble, a UK-based startup building medical practice management software.
- Alesi Surgical, a UK-based startup building medical devices to reduce surgical smoke in operating theatres.
YZR Capital
Deals: 18 (10 new, 8 follow-on)
HQ: Munich, Germany
Fund focus: YZR invests from pre-seed to Series A, in digital health and medtech. It announced a first close of its first fund, with €60m in the pot, in December 2022.
Notable deals:
- Esper Bionics, a Ukrainian-US developing building prosthetic limbs.
- ApoQlar, a German startup building software for medical imaging, diagnostics and pre-operative planning.
- Deemea, a French data platform for clinical studies.
SFC Capital
Deals: 18 (13 new, 5 follow-on)
HQ: London
Fund focus: SFC Capital only backs startups eligible for SEIS and EIS funding — a UK government scheme which aims to incentivise people to support early-stage British companies by offering income tax relief on investments. It’s a generalist investor but tells Sifted its biggest areas of investment are B2B SaaS, climate tech and medtech. SFC typically writes tickets of £100k-500k. It was the UK’s most active early-stage investor when Sifted pulled the data earlier this year.
Notable deals:
- 4D Biomaterials, a German startup developing implantable medical devices.
- NIQS, a UK-based spinout developing non-invasive glucose monitoring solutions for diabetes patients.
- Medwise, a UK-based Q&A platform for clinicians.
Verve Ventures
Deals: 16 (3 new, 13 follow-on)
HQ: Zurich, Switzerland
Fund focus: Verve is a deeptech fund focused on climate tech, the future of computing including AI, robotics and health.
Notable deals:
- Limula, a Swiss startup developing a cell manufacturing device for gene therapy.
- Sympatient, a German digital clinic for psychotherapy.
- Earlysight, a Swiss startup building a medical device to help detect and treat eye diseases.
Speedinvest
Deals: 13 (6 new, 7 follow-on)
HQ: Vienna, with offices in London, Paris, Berlin and Munich
Fund focus: Speedinvest is a generalist early-stage investor, focusing on climate tech, deeptech, fintech, health and techbio, marketplaces and consumer and SaaS. It closed its fourth early-stage fund at €350m in January.
Notable deals:
- Flinn, an Austrian startup using AI to automate regulatory compliance for medtechs.
- Sona, a UK-based app to manage frontline workers, including those in social care.
- RoClub, a German startup providing remote MRI and CT scans.
