Custom Surgical, a Munich-based medical technology company focused on digitizing and standardizing ophthalmology workflows, has closed a €3.5 million pre-series A financing round led by Ventech, with participation from ZEISS and a group of existing and new investors.
The funding will support the company’s mission to modernize one of healthcare’s last largely analog domains: everyday eye care. Most ophthalmic consultations and surgical workflows, particularly slit lamp examinations and microsurgery, continue to rely on analog hardware and fragmented documentation processes.
Custom Surgical addresses this gap with hardware-agnostic digitization solutions designed to integrate into existing clinical environments. By retrofitting slit lamps and surgical microscopes already in use, the company enables practices and hospitals to capture high-quality visual data without replacing core equipment or disrupting established workflows.
At the centre of the offering is MicroREC Connect, a cloud-based platform that manages ophthalmic data across devices and manufacturers. The platform enables secure capture, storage and structuring of images and videos, while supporting longitudinal patient documentation and more streamlined clinical workflows. Rather than functioning solely as an image archive, MicroREC Connect is positioned as a unifying digital layer that connects examinations, procedures and follow-up over time, laying the foundation for more efficient collaboration and data-driven care delivery.
The company’s strategy is to digitize and standardize workflows before introducing artificial intelligence-driven applications. By taking an incremental approach, Custom Surgical aims to lower adoption barriers for clinics and ensure that future AI tools are grounded in real clinical practice.
With adoption growing across Europe and the Americas, the company is preparing to introduce AI-based clinical support features designed to assist healthcare professionals. These include tools to improve image capture quality, support triage and optimize referral pathways, while keeping clinicians in control of decision-making.
The round was led by Ventech, a pan-European multi-specialist venture capital firm with experience in deep tech and B2B software investments across the DACH region, France and the Nordics. The firm brings experience in scaling infrastructure-focused companies and investing in regulated markets.
A key milestone in the round is the investment by ZEISS through its venture capital arm. The strategic backing adds deep technical expertise and global reach in ophthalmic systems and precision optics, reinforcing Custom Surgical’s position at the intersection of hardware, software and clinical workflows.
With the new capital, Custom Surgical plans to expand sales and marketing activities across Europe and the United States, scale its commercial team and continue investing in AI-enabled clinical support solutions. The company will also strengthen its engineering capabilities in Munich while accelerating adoption in key ophthalmology markets.
KEY QUOTES:
“By uniting hardware, software, data, and AI, Custom Surgical is seizing a generational opportunity to reshape clinical eye-care workflows at global scale. The team has built a truly unique data asset, achieved global adoption with remarkable capital efficiency, and is addressing a structural inefficiency in a rapidly growing market. We are glad to join forces with industry leaders like Zeiss to fuel Custom Surgical’s ambition to become the data standard in ophthalmology.”
Nicolas Barthalon, Principal at Ventech
“Custom Surgical’s digitalisation solution has already gained impressive traction in a short period of time — proving its value proposition for practitioners and its potential to redefine ophthalmology workflows by leveraging AI-based clinical support to transform analogue diagnostic practices,”
Mike Gänßler, Investment Manager at ZEISS Ventures
“Global demand for eye care is growing at a pace that current clinical processes can no longer sustain. Scalable digital workflows are essential to enable fast, accurate screening for a growing and aging worldwide population. This financing validates our long-term vision: build the data foundation first, then unlock AI-driven clinical and economic value. We are proud to partner with Ventech, ZEISS, and our investors as we scale globally.”
Federico Acosta, CEO of Custom Surgical
