German healthtech company Skleo Health has raised €3 million in a seed funding round to scale its network of accessible, medically validated eye screenings nationwide.
In Germany alone, 9.7 million people are affected by preventable eye conditions like glaucoma, diabetic eye disease, and age-related macular degeneration. However, with an average wait time of 56 days for specialist appointments, 31% of patients receive treatment too late to effectively prevent disease progression.
Skleo Health was founded to address the urgent need for earlier detection of preventable eye diseases by making eye screenings accessible at scale. The company offers quick, six-minute screenings at everyday locations such as opticians, pharmacies, retail stores, and workplaces. Each screening is analysed through a two-step process, first by CE-certified AI, then validated by a specialist eye doctor, ensuring high-quality, accurate results with maximum convenience for patients.
Skleo Health’s innovative approach, supported by key opinion leaders from Charité University Clinic Berlin, UCL London, and Yale University, allows people to benefit from early detection, ensures doctors can prioritise treatment and reduces the burden on healthcare services by making preventive care more accessible, efficient and cost-effective.
Dr. Steffen E. Künzel, Co-founder of Skleo Health, comments:
Every day in the clinic, I witnessed the profound impact of late-stage diagnosis, where treatment options are often limited and the outcomes are uncertain. We founded Skleo Health to fundamentally change this reality. By bringing certified, medically validated screenings into everyday life, we are replacing reactive treatment with proactive prevention.
This funding allows us to build a new standard of care where early detection is the norm, not the exception, ensuring we can save the sight of millions.
The investment was led by Sanoptis, Europe’s leading ophthalmology services provider, alongside Antler, the most active early-stage VC firm in Europe, and a number of high-profile angel investors.
Dr. Volker Wendel, Founder and CEO of Sanoptis, comments:
At Sanoptis, our mission is to make excellent eye care accessible to everyone - and we see Skleo Health as a key driver in transforming how preventive care is delivered across Europe. Skleo's approach, which combines medical expertise with cutting-edge AI and an easily accessible screening infrastructure, is shaping the future of eye care. By identifying diseases earlier and being closer to the patient, they are tackling one of the biggest challenges in ophthalmology today: late diagnosis.
We are proud to bring our clinical network and expertise to this partnership, and confident that Skleo’s model represents a new era in proactive, patient-centred eye care.
The founders of Skleo Health met during a founder residency run by Antler in Berlin in late 2023. The team combines deep medical and business expertise.
Alan Poensgen, Partner at Antler, comments:
Skleo Health will radically improve eyecare in Germany and across Europe. The precision and speed with which Skleo Health has built an offering that addresses the exact problems facing patients and doctors only comes from firsthand experience.
The founding team combines the medical expertise of Steffen with the technical and business experience of Fabien and Alex. They know their market, they have built a solution, and they are now executing and scaling to deliver their vision. It’s been a pleasure working with the founders from day zer,o and I have every confidence in their future success.
Since being founded in March 2024, Skleo Health has expanded its operations to Germany's 50 largest cities, already screening over 11,000 people and identifying over 3,000 cases with medically relevant findings.
The funding will fuel the expansion of Skleo Health’s partner network with the goal of reaching a capacity of 30,000 screenings per month. In parallel, the company will build its open, nationwide platform to connect patients with specialist eye doctors.
A strategic partnership with lead investor Sanoptis is accelerating Skleo's platform expansion, ensuring patients consistent access to high-quality care. Part of the funding also supports further development of Skleo’s proprietary AI diagnostic technology.
Lead image: Skleo Health team | Photo: Uncredited
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