Munich, February 16, 2022 – HealthTech company Climedo has received €5 million in a seed financing round. The lead investor is pan-European VC firm Nauta Capital. Westtech Ventures from Berlin and existing business angels such as Prof. Dr. Christian Wallwiener (WMC Healthcare) also participated in the round. Climedo is a digital platform for electronic data capture in decentralized clinical trials. The company will use the new capital for expanding within Europe and for further developing its software solutions. The objective is for the software to become even more patient-centric and to enable end-to-end communication between study coordinators, physicians and patients. There will also be more interfaces, e.g. to telemedicine and wearables.

"Clinical trials are extremely time-consuming and costly for companies," says Guillem Sagué, Partner at Nauta Capital. "This needs to change. Digitalizing and decentralizing trials can save massive costs. It also gives small companies access to clinical trials. At the same time, the approval of drugs for rare diseases is often not worthwhile for cost reasons – this is something Climedo aims to change as well. Digitalization has the potential to make processes much more efficient, thereby contributing to a democratization of drug development."

For VC Nauta Capital, this is the fourth investment in the digital health sector.

By capturing and processing real-time data in compliance with data protection regulations, Climedo not only enables faster and more cost-effective approvals of drugs and medical devices, but can also be applied for post-market surveillance, where the safety and performance of products on the market are documented throughout their lifecycle. Climedo's EDC (Electronic Data Capture) system also includes an ePRO (electronic patient-reported outcomes) feature. Clinical trial subjects thereby keep an electronic patient diary which asks them about their daily symptoms, for example. Climedo can be used on any device that has internet access – without the need for installing an app. According to a survey conducted by Informa Connect in 2021, decentralized trials are faster than conventional trials, saving respondents around three months on average.^[1]

Co-founder and CEO Sascha Ritz explains, "We have set ourselves the ambitious goal of becoming the market leader in Europe for patient-centric, electronic data capture by 2024. Nauta Capital is an investor that has recognized the potential in our decentralized platform and the integration of telemedicine into the world of clinical trials. We are pleased to have Nauta Capital by our side to help expand our partner network and fulfil our mission."

Climedo has already successfully worked with hospitals such as Berlin's Charité and numerous medical device manufacturers, pharma companies and contract research organizations. According to Grand View Research, the global clinical trials market is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 5.7 percent between 2021 and 2028.^[2] Drivers here include the globalization of clinical trials, rapid technological development and the growing demand for contract research organizations to conduct research projects.

Last year alone, one person in a hundred within Germany had a touchpoint with Climedo's software. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Climedo has provided its eDiary solution for tracking (suspected) cases to nearly half of all German health authorities. This allows for contactless monitoring on the side of authorities, without the need for daily telephone calls to ask about people’s symptoms. Instead, people who test positive and their close contacts complete a digital questionnaire on their smartphone or computer, and health departments see all data in a real-time dashboard. It is thus possible to respond to potential adverse events immediately, resulting in time savings of up to 80 percent. Automatic reminder features help ensure that questionnaires are completed on time.