Custom Surgical Closes Pre-Series A round led by Ventech to Accelerate the Digitisation of Ophthalmology Workflows

19 February, Munich, 8.00 am CEST

Custom Surgical, a Munich-based medical technology company digitising ophthalmology workflows, today announces the successful closing of its Pre-Series A financing round at €3.5M, led by Ventech and joined by ZEISS as well as a group of existing and new investors.

The financing will support Custom Surgical’s mission to modernise one of healthcare’s last largely analog domains: everyday eye care. 

Today, the majority of ophthalmic consultations and surgical workflows—particularly around slit lamp examinations and microsurgery—are still carried out using analog hardware tools and fragmented documentation processes. 

Custom Surgical addresses this challenge with hardware-agnostic digitisation solutions that integrate seamlessly 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 this offering is MicroREC Connect, Custom Surgical’s cloud-based platform for managing ophthalmic data across devices and manufacturers. The platform enables secure capture, storage, and structuring of images and videos, while supporting longitudinal patient documentation and streamlined clinical workflows. 

Rather than acting as a traditional image archive, MicroREC Connect is designed as a unifying digital layer for eye care—connecting examinations, procedures, and follow-up over time, and creating the foundation for more efficient collaboration and data-driven care delivery.

A Pragmatic Path Toward AI-Enabled Eye Care

Custom Surgical’s strategy is intentionally incremental: digitise first, standardise workflows, and only then introduce AI-driven applications. This approach lowers adoption barriers for clinics and ensures that future AI tools are grounded in real clinical practice.

With growing adoption across Europe and the Americas, the company is preparing to introduce AI-based clinical support features aimed at assisting healthcare professionals—for example by improving image capture quality, supporting triage, and optimising referral pathways. These tools are designed to enhance efficiency and decision-making while keeping clinicians firmly in control.

Partnership with Ventech

The round was led by Ventech, a pan-European multil-specialist venture capital firm with a strong track record in deep tech and B2B software investments in the Dach region, France and the Nordics. Ventech brings extensive experience in scaling companies that build foundational infrastructure, as well as a long-term perspective on value creation in regulated markets. Their support reinforces Custom Surgical’s focus on building robust, scalable digital solutions that can be adopted globally across diverse healthcare systems.

Nicolas Barthalon, Principal at Ventech commented: “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.” 

Strategic Partnership with ZEISS

A key milestone of this financing round is the investment by ZEISS, one of the world’s leading optics and medical technology companies. Beyond capital, ZEISS Ventures, the venture-capital-arm of ZEISS, brings deep-tech expertise, global reach, and decades of experience in ophthalmic systems and precision optics.

The partnership strengthens Custom Surgical’s position at the intersection of hardware, software, and clinical workflows, and creates opportunities for strategic collaboration as digital solutions become increasingly central to eye care delivery.

"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,” says Mike Gänßler, Investment Manager at ZEISS Ventures.

Investor Confidence in Foundational Infrastructure

“Global demand for eye care is growing at a pace that current clinical processes can no longer sustain,” said Federico Acosta, CEO of Custom Surgical. “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.”

With this Pre-Series A round, Custom Surgical will expand its sales and marketing activities across Europe and the United States, scale its commercial team, and invest further in the development of AI-enabled clinical support solutions. The company plans to strengthen its engineering capabilities in Munich while accelerating adoption in key ophthalmology markets.

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About Custom Surgical

Custom Surgical is a Munich-based medical technology company focused on digitising and standardising ophthalmology workflows. The company develops hardware-agnostic solutions that retrofit existing slit lamps and surgical microscopes, enabling the secure capture and management of visual clinical data without disrupting established practice environments. Its cloud-based platform, MicroREC Connect, provides a digital layer for ophthalmic examinations and procedures by supporting structured documentation and workflow continuity across clinical settings. Custom Surgical’s long-term strategy combines workflow digitisation with the development of AI-based clinical support tools aimed at improving efficiency and supporting healthcare professionals in delivering high-quality patient care.

‍About Ventech

Ventech is a well-established early-stage venture capital firm in both Europe and Asia with a strong digital focus. Founded in 1998, Ventech backs the most innovative and visionary tech entrepreneurs in diverse sectors with a global ambition. With its dual structure platform, Ventech has dedicated funds for Europe (Paris, Munich, Berlin, Helsinki & Stockholm) and Asia (Shanghai and Hong Kong).

Since its inception, Ventech has raised more than 1B€ and has realized over 320 investments, (including Vestiaire Collective, Prewave, Ogury, The Customization Group, Veo Technologies, Crossbeam, Speexx) and over 180 exits (Believe (BLV.PA) – listed on Euronext; Arteris (AIP) listed on Nasdaq; FintecSystems; Withings; 4 Stop, etc.).

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Media contact:

Yakun WANG

Head of Marketing & Communications

Ventech

Yakun.wang@ventechvc.com

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