Cavell raises €1.5 million to make healthcare more efficient and patient-centered

Ghent, Monday 5 May 2025 – Cavell, a Ghent-based digital health startup located in the Wintercircus, announces today that it has raised €1.5 million in a pre-seed funding round. With this investment, the company brings several strategic investors on board to accelerate growth in Belgium and Europe, in both primary and secondary care.

Left to right: Anthony Rathé – Louis Verdonckt – Karel Bruneel – Dr Pieter Olivier – Bertil Vandekerkhove.

Ghent, Monday 5 May 2025 – Cavell, a Ghent-based digital health startup located in the Wintercircus, announces today that it has raised €1.5 million in a pre-seed funding round. With this investment, the company brings several strategic investors on board to accelerate growth in Belgium and Europe, in both primary and secondary care.

Cavell was founded a year ago by Anthony Rathé, Pieter Olivier and Louis Verdonckt to address one of the biggest pain points in healthcare: an excess of administration and poor medical data. Pieter, a Neurologist at AZ Sint-Lucas and co-founder, saw the need every day: “As a doctor, I noticed how much time was lost on reporting and administration. It was frustrating to see how much space that took away from actual care.” That is why the three of them developed Cavell. The software listens during consultations, surgeries or nursing rounds, and automatically summarizes everything into a medical report, coded if needed, that goes directly into the patient record.

Today, Cavell is already delivering a clear impact. This is confirmed by several hospitals and general practices where Cavell is now active. Below are some testimonials.

“The story of Cavell illustrates how innovation with impact can emerge from medical practice. Innovative thinking has become a must in today’s hospital world. We don’t just want to rely on external technology, but want to stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship among our staff and physicians.”

— Thierry Freyne, CEO AZ Sint-Lucas in Ghent, which is part of Cavell’s origin story.

“Thanks to Cavell, I can fully concentrate on the patient and their story. Cavell creates a clear summary of the anamnesis for me. It saves me time, the interaction with the patient is better, and the report in my EHR is more thorough.”

— Pieter Vanderschaeve, General Practice Medined.

“At AZ Oostende, through our innovation unit ‘HiTide’, we are fully committed to artificial intelligence. The collaboration with Cavell fits within our vision of reducing screen time for care providers and focusing on more direct patient contact. The nurses, physicians and paramedics who use Cavell are very enthusiastic about the direct impact Cavell has on their work.”

— Brecht Dekeyser, Director of Data & IT at AZ Oostende.

“At European Hip Center, the patient comes first. While we can fully dedicate our attention to our patient, structured data points are immediately captured in our patient record and even in our underlying data warehouse. A huge step forward in data-driven precision medicine.”

— Stijn Roose, CEO European Hip Center

“By integrating Cavell in our hospital, we are taking an important step towards care innovation. This tool reduces the workload for our healthcare professionals, optimizes data registration and thus contributes to a higher quality of care for our patients.”

— Frank Staelens, Director of Care Innovation AZORG

With the raised funding, the team aims to further develop Cavell into the standard for capturing, structuring and processing medical data – in every clinical setting, for every user. The focus lies on developing reliable, scalable technology that seamlessly connects to the daily reality of care providers and integrates perfectly into their current software package. “Our ambition is not to just be a digital tool,” says Anthony, co-founder. “We build technology that truly works for people in healthcare – robust, user-friendly and integrated. Because only then do we make a lasting difference.”

The capital will also be used to support the international rollout of Cavell. Louis Verdonckt, co-founder, considers this funding an important milestone: “There are currently several promising partnerships in the pipeline to introduce Cavell to many care providers in Belgium. However, our ambition extends beyond Belgium: we want to improve healthcare across Europe. Thanks to the trust of our investors, we can now scale up faster and increase our impact. We are very much looking forward to continuing to build a healthcare system that truly revolves around the patient.”

For more information, visit www.cavell.ai.