Eye care startup Custom Surgical has raised €3.5m to modernise ophthalmology by turning analogue slit lamps and microscopes into digital data hubs.
Munich-based Custom Surgical was founded in 2018 by mechatronics engineer Federico Acosta and Fernando Benito. It specialises in digitalising slit lamps and surgical microscopes used in everyday eye care. Slit lamps are standard devices eye doctors use to examine the front and back of the eye using a bright light and magnification.
Rather than replacing existing equipment, the company retrofits devices already in use. Its hardware-agnostic solutions allow clinics and hospitals to capture high-quality images and video without disrupting established workflows.
At the centre of the system is MicroREC Connect, a cloud-based platform that manages ophthalmic data across devices and manufacturers. It enables secure capture, storage and structured organisation of images and video, supporting long-term patient documentation and collaboration between clinical teams.
The company’s strategy follows a phased approach, starting with digitisation, then workflow standardisation, followed by AI-powered clinical support tools. Within the next 12 months, Custom Surgical plans to release its first AI-powered triage tool to help ease waiting times for eye care treatment.
The funding round was a pre-series A and brings the company’s total funding to date to €6m. Custom Surgical said it generated more sales than it raised during this financing round and has reinvested revenue into advancing its product portfolio.
Federico Acosta, chief executive of Custom Surgical, said: “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 ageing 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.”
The round was led by Ventech, with participation from ZEISS and a mix of new and existing investors.
Nicolas Barthalon, principal at Ventech, said: “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.”
Custom Surgical employs 16 people from nine countries and plans to expand its commercial and engineering teams as it grows across Europe and the US.
