HTGF and Bayern Kapital invest in virtual heart clinic iATROS

Munich, Frank­furt a. Main — High-Tech Grün­der­fonds (HTGF), toge­ther with co-inves­­tors Bayern Kapi­tal and seve­ral busi­ness angels, is taking a stake in Munich-based iATROS GmbH as part of a two million euro seed finan­cing. The digi­tal health startup has deve­lo­ped a tele­me­di­cine solu­tion that enables data-driven treat­ment of cardio­logy pati­ents. Thus, iATROS addres­ses clinics as well as pati­ents directly.

The funds from the seed round will be used to expand the work­force and further deve­lop the soft­ware. The opera­tio­nal launch is plan­ned for later this year.

iATROS was foun­ded in 2019 by two cardiac specia­lists, Prof. Alex­an­der Leber, MD, and Geor­ges von Degen­feld, MD, as well as Patrick Pala­cin, Prof. Wolf­ram Winter, and Jens Schä­fer. The deve­lo­p­ment of the plat­form aims to connect cardiac pati­ents more closely and perma­nently with their medi­cal provi­ders. The core of the solu­tion is the app-based, conti­nuous doctor-pati­ent connec­tion in the form of digi­tal health plans as well as a manu­­fac­­tu­­rer-inde­­pen­­dent inte­gra­tion of mobile health sensors (so-called smart weara­bles). This invol­ves the perma­nent coll­ec­tion of pati­ent health data to assist physi­ci­ans with diagno­stics, medi­ca­tion sche­du­ling and auto­ma­ted alerts using arti­fi­cial intelligence.

Via the app, heart pati­ents are profes­sio­nally accom­pa­nied and remin­ded to take measu­re­ments or medi­ca­tion. In addi­tion, the app offers pati­ents the oppor­tu­nity to self-assess their health status. In emer­gen­cies, they can cont­act a tele­car­dio­lo­gist around the clock (24/7) at the touch of a button. The iATROS plat­form is desi­gned to help make medi­cal care for cardiac pati­ents more effi­ci­ent and prevent dise­a­ses such as strokes or heart attacks.iATROS’ solu­tion addres­ses one of the largest areas of the German health­care system: the field of cardio­logy, for exam­ple, accounts for around 16 percent of total health­care costs in Germany. Cardio­vas­cu­lar dise­ase is the leading cause of death, accoun­ting for 39 percent of all cases. In addi­tion, around 1.7 million pati­ents are trea­ted as inpa­ti­ents for cardio­vas­cu­lar dise­a­ses in this coun­try every year.

Roman Huber (photo), Mana­ging Direc­tor of Bayern Kapi­tal: “Compared to other sectors, the health­care indus­try is still not very digi­ti­zed. A large market with considera­ble growth poten­tial will open up here in the coming years. Espe­ci­ally in cardio­logy, digi­tal solu­ti­ons offer signi­fi­cant oppor­tu­ni­ties to improve pati­ents’ therapy and quality of life. That’s what makes iATROS’ well-desi­­g­ned solu­tion so exciting.”

iATROS GmbH is one of the most inno­va­tive start-ups in digi­tal medi­cine. The compe­tence of the foun­ders, the tech­no­logy as well as the deve­lo­p­ment poten­tial in this busi­ness field convin­ced us to invest, says Dr. Juri Bach, Invest­ment Mana­ger of HTGF.