The Netherlands medtech landscape has grown stronger over the years, thanks to technology, scientific excellence, several patented applications, and of course, the dynamic demography of startups supported by regional ecosystems.
Amsterdam has been a breeding ground for innovation in the last few years, delivering crucial advances in areas — conducting cancer research, cancer immunotherapy, clinical trials, surgical performance, and much more.
The foundation of medtech in Amsterdam is stronger to drive further innovation. By transforming ideas into solutions for patients, health professionals, and health systems, the industry has contributed to better outcomes and greater efficiency in healthcare.
In this process, various Amsterdam’s medtech startups have helped the Netherlands to become one of the best countries in Europe in this highly competitive sector.
Castor
Founder/s: Derk Arts
Funding: €55M
The Amsterdam-based company offers a cloud-based clinical data platform that simplifies and streamlines clinical trials processes. Castor offers a self-service clinical research platform enabling the researcher to design studies and integrate data from any source in real-time.
Moreover, the interested patients can enroll themselves in trials and share their data online or via a mobile app. So far, the company has supported over 7,500 studies in more than 90 countries.
Last month, the company raised $45M (approx €38M) in funding in a Series B financing round led by Eight Roads Ventures and F-Prime Capital.
Incision
Founder/s: Theo Wiggers
Funding: €5M
Incision provides a medical education platform for surgical performance and online training. Based in the SDG House in the Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, the company provides tools to get a quicker and more thorough preparation for the OR.
Moreover, the Dutch startup creates a common surgical language to streamline communication in the operating theatre and with colleagues globally. Back in May, the company raised €5M funding from SHS and Rubio Impact Ventures.
The Amsterdam company is building a knowledge platform that supports the training and the execution of operations. To improve the surgical staff’s knowledge and performance, the company focus on the ‘5 moments of need method’ – Learn New; Learn More; Apply; Solve, and Change.
LUMICKS
Founder/s: Andrea Candelli, and Olivier Heyning
Funding: €77.6M
LUMICKS is a life science tools company that develops equipment for Dynamic Single-Molecule and Cell Avidity analysis, two rapidly emerging areas in biology research and immuno-oncology.
Notably, the Amsterdam-based company was an academic spin-off from the research group of Prof. Gijs Wuite, Prof. Erwin Peterman, and Prof. Iddo Heller at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Using the company’s C-Trap Optical Tweezers – Fluorescence Microscopy, scientists can analyse complex biological processes in real-time.
Similarly, the company’s z-Movi Cell Avidity Analyzer enables the measurement and selection of immune cells based on their real-time interactions with target cells.
In April, the company secured 93M (approx €77.6M) in its Series D round of funding led by new investors Farallon Capital Management and Lauxera Capital Partners.
myTomorrows
Founder/s: Ronald Brus
Funding: €20M
The Amsterdam-based startup connects patients with unmet medical needs to treatments in development around the world. The company is on a mission to ensure that patients and doctors don’t miss out on treatment options due to a lack of information, understanding, and administrative hurdles.
In fact, the company has developed a knowledge base to combine vast amounts of medical and clinical data to present an actionable overview of the full clinical development pipeline. Recently, Michel van Harten, MD, COO, has been appointed as CEO of myTomorrows managing the overall operations from August onwards.
Founda Health
Founder/s: Jan Joost Kalff.
Funding: €12.3M
The Dutch startup is on a mission to improve collaboration, knowledge sharing, and innovation through better interoperability in healthcare.
Founda Health creates a bridge between the systems used by healthcare providers and innovative health applications around the world.
As per the company’s claims, this is the easiest way for collaboration between systems and providers, without high setup or maintenance costs.
Earlier this year, the Amsterdam medtech startup raised $15M (approx €12.3M) from a group of healthcare and fintech entrepreneurs.
SkinVision
Founder/s: Mircea Popa, Victor Anastasiu
Funding: €10M
SkinVision enables users to perform regular self-checks for skin cancer with their phones. The tracking solution helps individuals with the early recognition of various skin diseases including melanoma, squamous cell carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma, and precancerous actinic keratosis.
The Amsterdam-based company is clinically validated and can detect signs of most common skin cancers with 95 per cent sensitivity. The company is on a mission of saving the lives of 250.000 people in the next decade.
MedEye
Founder/s: Ivar Helgason and Maria Runarsdottir
Funding: €17.9M
MedEye, a solution developed by Mint Solutions is a combination of AI-based hardware and software to help nurses administer medicine. Also called the Second Nurse, MedEye uses computer vision technology to enable the nurse to work faster and more efficiently than other comparable solutions.
Further, the solution works with the nurse to make sure that all medication dosages are safely delivered to the patient. With this solution, the company aims to address the problem of medication errors in hospitals and healthcare institutions.
NLC
Founder/s: Bert-Arjan Millenaar
NLC is the European health tech venture builder, bringing science-based health tech inventions to life. Since 2015, the company has built a portfolio of over 60 healthtech ventures, making it the largest HealthTech venture builder in Europe.
The company’s unique approach ‘entrepreneurship at scale’, allows NLC to find inventions and create and support ventures that have a life-changing impact on patients around the world.
In April, the company closed a €20M equity financing round to further strengthen and scale its venture building model. According to the company, it will create a Special Purpose Vehicle that will facilitate further growth of NLC’s ventures by providing capital, talent and buying out NLC’s stake in the ventures.
