Vitestro raises $70 million for blood collection robot

The Utrecht-based medtech company Vitestro has raised $70 million in a new investment round. The company plans to use the money to further develop its robot that can automatically draw blood from patients.

Participants in the financing round included Labcorp's venture fund, the American healthcare organizations Mayo Clinic and Sutter Health, and investors such as PGGM, ROM Utrecht, and Invest-NL. According to Vitestro, the investment round was even oversubscribed.

A new system

The money will be used to develop a new generation of the system, Aletta, and prepare it for wider application in hospitals and clinics. The company also wants to scale up production and conduct clinical studies. In addition, Vitestro is working on getting the technology approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

How the system works

The robot combines imaging, robotics, and artificial intelligence to find suitable veins, insert a needle, and draw blood. The system is designed to automate routine blood draws, thereby reducing the workload for healthcare personnel.

Billions of procedures per year

Blood collection is one of the most frequently performed medical procedures worldwide, with billions of procedures performed each year. Vitestro believes that automation can help make hospital processes more efficient and maintain a more consistent quality of blood collection.

US: the next market

Vitestro's system already has a CE mark in Europe and is being tested on a limited scale in clinical settings. The company is now working on further international rollout, with the United States as the next major market.