Düsseldorf-based Skleo Health, a HealthTech company on a mission to eliminate preventable blindness, has raised €3 million in a Seed funding round to scale its network of accessible, medically-validated eye screenings nationwide.
The investment was led by Sanoptis, a leading European ophthalmology services provider, alongside Antler and a number of high profile angel investors.
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.”
Founded in 2024, Skleo Health’s platform empowers partners such as opticians, pharmacies, retail stores, and corporations to offer accessible and fast eye screenings that combine advanced AI analysis with medical validation by licensed ophthalmologists.
The Founders met during a founder residency run by Antler in Berlin in 2023. The team combines medical and business expertise: Dr Steffen E. Künzel is an ophthalmologist and researcher, formerly with Charité University Hospital. Fabien Vogl is an engineer with an MBA and a background in healthcare and digitisation at Air Liquide. Dr Alex Hein is a mathematician and economist, formerly a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Beyond screening, Skleo’s platform connects individuals directly with specialist care, enabling a seamless patient journey from early detection to treatment. This ensures early detection, simplifies access to treatment, and improves outcomes for patients. At the same time, it allows medical professionals to focus on delivering care while enhancing efficiency across the healthcare system.
Skleo Health is making preventive eye screenings available in everyday locations such as opticians, pharmacies, retail, and company offices. Skleo Health’s service consists of a rapid, six-minute eye screening at a convenient partner location. The results are then processed in the background through a two-step analysis: first by an CE-certified AI, followed by medical validation from a specialist eye doctor to ensure the highest level of quality and accuracy.
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-centered eye care.”
As per data provided by Skelo Health – in Germany alone, 9.7 million people suffer from preventable eye conditions such as glaucoma, diabetic eye disease, age-related macular degeneration and other widespread diseases. Yet the average waiting time for specialist appointments is 56 days and data shows that 31% of patients are treated too late to be able to prevent these diseases.
Skleo Health’s approach, which is supported by notable figures from Charité University Clinic Berlin, UCL London, and Yale University, looks to allow 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.
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.
The strategic partnership with lead investor Sanoptis enables Skleo to quickly scale its platform, guaranteeing patients reliable access to high-quality treatment. A portion of the funding is also dedicated to advancing Skleo’s proprietary AI diagnostic platform.
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 zero and I have every confidence in their future success.”
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2025/07/german-startup-skleo-health-raises-e3-million-to-combat-preventable-blindness-with-accessible-ai-powered-eye-screenings/
