Utrecht’s Moveshelf bags €1.7M from Nextgen Ventures, others to help treat movement disorders

Utrecht-based Moveshelf, a digital health company, announced on Wednesday that it has raised €1.7M in a fresh round of funding led by Nextgen Ventures. Existing investors Utrecht Health Seed Fund and Locapes Investment Fund also participated in the round.

The Dutch company says it will use the funds to accelerate growth and international sales of its information system for movement disorders. 

Ignazio Aleo, Ph.D., CEO of Moveshelf, says, “We are thrilled to have the support of this outstanding consortium of experienced digital healthcare investors. This funding will enable us to support many more organisations and patients with our unique information

system for movement disorders. We are excited to enter a new chapter and feel privileged and proud to work on a service that can significantly positively impact patients’ lives.”

Treating Movement disorder

Moveshelf says it found out that one out of four 50+-year-olds faces some form of movement disorder, with prevalence rising sharply with age. 

Severe movement disorders, particularly those associated with Osteoarthritis, Stroke, Cerebral palsy, and Parkinson’s disease, have a high societal, personal, and economic impact. 

The company says that movement analysis, the structured and quantified measurement of movement data, is vital in diagnosing and treating patients affected by movement disorders. 

Moveshelf: What you need to know

Ignazio Aleo and Per Slycke founded Moveshelf in 2017 to develop software technologies that can accelerate understanding human motion. 

Moveshelf supplies a novel information system for movement and musculoskeletal disorders. The company integrates movement analysis with clinical procedures, providing a digital platform for decision support and objective and quantitative analysis of complex multimodal datasets.

This allows medical teams to easily visualise results and make better decisions to improve MD/MSK care across the care cycle.

Moveshelf’s launch customers include leading EU and US care providers specialised in MD/MSK, such as the Sint Maartenskliniek, University Medical Center Groningen, Roessingh Rehabilitation Center, and Maastricht University Medical Center. 

Teams at these customers use Moveshelf daily to centralise measurements from patients wherever they are, create concise reports as a basis for diagnosis, therapy selection & monitoring, and access these reports wherever they work. 

The Investor

Nextgen Ventures is an investment fund that invests in knowledge-intensive companies that enable transformation in health care. The VC works with portfolio companies to develop and market potential breakthrough innovations in healthcare IT and medical technology. 

Peter Haasjes, Investment Director at NextGen Ventures, says, “We believe that acquiring digital biomarkers from patients and analysing them will improve the quality of diagnoses and ultimately treatments and patient outcomes. Movement and musculoskeletal disorders play such a big part in patients’ lives, and Moveshelf is uniquely positioned to assist physicians and laboratory technicians with their day-to-day activities and catalyse innovation.”