How AI Is Catching a Deadly Eye Cancer Before It's Too Late

Jan de Vries · 2026-08-21

Here's something you don't hear every day. A startup from Stockholm just landed a major investment to fight a rare but deadly cancer using a tool we all have access to: the optician's chair. Eyedentity, a MedTech company founded just last year, closed its first funding round at $1.4 million (that's about SEK 15 million). And guess what? It was oversubscribed, meaning investors wanted in more than they could get. This isn't just about cash. It's about a mission. The money will help them get regulatory approval, refine their product, and roll out their AI-powered diagnostics platform to opticians, eye clinics, and hospitals. Think about that for a second. The tech is designed to work with the images already being taken during your routine eye exam. No new machines, no complicated procedures. ### Who's Backing This Vision? The round was led by Norrsken Launcher, with the Karolinska Institutet Innovation and a group of angel investors joining in. Anna Fredrixon, a Partner at Norrsken, put it perfectly. She said this is tech that saves lives without adding more strain to an overburdened healthcare system. "It's a win-win," she notes. "And what's more, no new infrastructure is needed. It's brilliant, and ready to roll out now." Gustav Stålhammar, the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer, explains why this approach is so smart. "A huge number of images are already taken at opticians," he says. There's also a trend where opticians are seeing more patients for things like vision problems or dry eyes. They're already on the front lines. Eyedentity just gives them a powerful new pair of eyes. ### The Bigger Picture in European Health Tech This investment isn't happening in a vacuum. It's part of a much larger wave of funding for AI-enabled diagnostics across Europe in 2026. Let's look at a few other notable deals that happened around the same time: - $14.7 million for ScreenPoint Medical and their AI-powered breast cancer imaging tech. - $3 million for Swiss image-analysis startup Moonlight AI. - $18 million for TidalSense, a Cambridge-based respiratory diagnostics company. - $10.8 million for French-Belgian neurodiagnostics startup neuroClues. - A whopping $26 million in financing for Eindhoven-based ShanX Medtech. Closer to home in Sweden, Lund-based MedVasc raised $2.4 million to advance an anesthesia catheter toward U.S. approval. When you add it all up, these selected deals in diagnostics and adjacent MedTech total nearly $76 million. That's a strong signal. Investors are doubling down on medical imaging, early detection, and getting new tech through the regulatory pipeline. ### The Founders Behind the Tech The company was founded by a team that knows both medicine and machines inside out. Gustav Stålhammar isn't just a co-founder; he's an ocular oncologist at St. Erik Eye Hospital and a Professor at the prestigious Karolinska Institutet. He's seen the problem firsthand. His partner, co-founder and CEO Mats Holmström, is a machine learning engineer. He previously worked at RaySearch Laboratories, where he focused on using AI to automate cancer care. Together, they're building a bridge between deep clinical expertise and cutting-edge technology. ### Targeting a Silent Threat So, what's the big target? Eyedentity's first application is focused on uveal melanoma. It's a rare but potentially deadly form of eye cancer. The tricky part is that in its early stages, it can look almost identical to a benign condition. That makes accurate, early triage absolutely critical. Uveal melanoma is actually the most common primary eye cancer in adults, though it's still rare overall. The real challenge is that benign look-alikes are far more common. So, when a routine eye image shows something suspicious, figuring out if it's dangerous or harmless quickly is a huge step forward. By partnering with opticians, Eyedentity taps into an existing pathway to screen a wider population. They don't need to build a new screening program from scratch. The infrastructure is already there, waiting to be empowered. ### The Incubator Advantage It also helps to have the right support network. The startup is part of the Karolinska Institutet Innovation Incubator. This isn't just about office space. It's about serious support for science-based companies in business development, financing, and strategy. Mats Holmström values this deeply. "The support goes beyond advice," he says. "It creates opportunities to meet people who can genuinely make a difference." In fact, their connection with lead investor Norrsken started at a Karolinska investor day. That chance meeting turned into a key partnership, showing how the right ecosystem can turn an idea into a reality that's ready to save lives.