MedTech startup Eyedentity has closed its first oversubscribed investment round at €1.3 million (SEK 15 million) to support regulatory approval, further product development and the expansion of Eyedentity’s AI-powered diagnostics platform into opticians, eye clinics and hospitals.
The round was led by Norrsken Launcher, with participation from the Karolinska Institutet Innovation and a group of angel investors.
Gustav Stålhammar, co-founder and CSO of Eyedentity, says: “A huge number of images are already taken at opticians, and there is a trend that opticians in particular are getting an increasingly large group of patients, for example people seeking help for vision problems, dry eyes or other problems.”
This investment comes amid other European funding for AI-enabled diagnostics and adjacent MedTech in 2026. EU-Startups has seen notable similar rounds, including:
€13.6 million for Nijmegen-based ScreenPoint Medical’s AI-powered breast cancer imaging technology
€2.8 million for Swiss image-analysis startup Moonlight AI
€16.6 million for Cambridge-based respiratory diagnostics company TidalSense
€10 million for French-Belgian neurodiagnostics startup neuroClues
€24 million in financing for Eindhoven-based ShanX Medtech
A same-country comparator includes Lund-based MedVasc, who raised €2.2 million this year to advance their anesthesia catheter towards US approval.
Together, these selected 2026 diagnostics and adjacent MedTech financings amount to almost €70 million, proving continued investment across medical imaging, early disease detection, clinical diagnostics and regulatory-stage MedTech.
Anna Fredrixon, Partner at Norrsken Launcher, adds: “This is a clear example of technology that can save lives but, unlike other AI companies, does not send more patients to an already overburdened healthcare system. This is a win-win. And what’s more, no new infrastructure is needed. It’s brilliant, and ready to roll out now.”
Founded in 2025, Eyedentity is developing AI technology designed to detect serious eye diseases from fundus images already captured during routine eye examinations.
The company was founded by a team combining expertise in ophthalmology, machine learning and company building:
Gustav Stålhammar, the co-founder and CSO, is an ocular oncologist at St. Erik Eye Hospital and Professor at Karolinska Institutet.
Co-founder and CEO Mats Holmström is a machine learning engineer who previously worked at RaySearch Laboratories, where he worked with machine learning applications for automating cancer care.
The company’s first application focuses on uveal melanoma, a rare but potentially deadly form of eye cancer that can be difficult to distinguish from benign conditions, particularly at an early stage.
Uveal melanoma is the most common primary intraocular cancer in adults, but remains relatively rare compared with other cancers. A major diagnostic challenge is that suspicious lesions can resemble benign eye conditions. While uveal melanoma itself is uncommon, benign counterparts are significantly more widespread, making accurate triage particularly important when routine eye images reveal suspicious findings.
For Eyedentity, opticians provide an existing route through which a wider population can be assessed without establishing a separate screening infrastructure.
The startup is also part of the Karolinska Institutet Innovation Incubator, which supports science-based companies with business development, financing, strategy and investor readiness.
Mats Holmström, CEO and co-founder of Eyedentity, says: “One of the things we really value about being part of the KI Incubator is that the support goes beyond advice. It also creates opportunities to meet people who can genuinely make a difference to the company. We first connected with Norrsken when we pitched at Karolinska Institutet Innovation InvestorDay, and it is great to see how that opportunity developed into an investment.”
Their approach is designed to work within the infrastructure already used by opticians. During a routine examination, an optician can upload existing fundus images to the company’s platform, which analyses them and provides decision support on whether the patient should be referred to a specialist.
This means the technology does not require opticians to purchase new imaging equipment or introduce a separate screening process.
The company says its system can reduce false-positive referrals by 90%, potentially helping specialist eye-care services prioritise patients who need further investigation while reducing unnecessary referrals and the anxiety associated with them.
Eyedentity is currently running a live pilot with Synologen, a network of independent opticians in Sweden. The company plans to move from this initial pilot towards commercialisation in the Nordics, followed by expansion across Europe and the US.
Mats says: “It’s about finding clinical partners, building a product for opticians, eye clinics and hospitals, starting new commercial collaborations with medical record systems to make it as smooth as possible – the goal is zero clicks for the optician. Then we want to build a product for other eye diseases and beyond that, take over Europe and the US.”
The new capital will be used to work towards full regulatory approval for Eyedentity’s first product, develop additional diagnostic capabilities and grow the team as the startup prepares for wider commercial deployment.
Beyond uveal melanoma, Eyedentity plans to apply its platform to other eye diseases, including diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma. Its longer-term ambition is to create an AI diagnostics platform that can support opticians, eye clinics and hospitals across multiple conditions rather than focusing on a single disease.