Groningen startup Enatom raises €900,000 for virtual dissection room

Enatom, a Groningen-based startup that creates interactive 3D anatomy models for medical education, closed a seed round of €900,000 in April 2024. The investment comes from LUMO Labs, NOM (Investerings- en Ontwikkelingsmaatschappij voor Noord-Nederland) and UNETI Ventures. The funds will be used for further product development and expansion of the development and sales team.

Enatom was founded in 2022 as a spin-out of the University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG) by Lusanne Tehupuring (CEO), Fabian Debats, Bastiaan Hofsteenge and Stefan Vogelzang. The company builds on an earlier funding round of €400,000 from G-Force Capital and Triade Investments, which was used to develop and validate the technology.

With the new capital, Enatom aims to strengthen its position in international medical education. The platform is already being used by students and healthcare professionals in the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria, and the company is in discussions with hospitals and universities outside Europe.

Anatomy models based on donated bodies

The product Enatom offers is referred to internally as the 'virtual dissection room'. At its core are photorealistic, interactive 3D models constructed from scans of donated bodies. This sets the visualisations apart from generic anatomical atlases or synthetic 3D models: the structures are based on real human anatomy.

The models can be accessed via a web application on laptops and tablets, as well as through VR and AR headsets. Students can navigate through layers of the body, isolate structures and view them from different angles, comparable to what is possible in a physical dissection room. For medical faculties with limited access to donated bodies, or those wishing to supplement their offering, this provides a digital alternative.

Enatom works closely with UMCG and has existing partnerships with the Medical University of Vienna and Amsterdam UMC. These partnerships give the company access to both academic input and early user groups in a university setting.

Three investors with different backgrounds

The composition of the investor group combines regional and sector-focused parties. NOM is a public-private investment company focused on businesses in the northern Netherlands, giving it a clear regional connection to Enatom as a Groningen-based company. LUMO Labs is a Dutch venture capital firm specialising in early-stage technology companies. UNETI Ventures focuses specifically on education technology.

Enatom falls into multiple categories simultaneously: the company operates at the intersection of healthcare, education and 3D technology, making it attractive to investors with different areas of focus. The €900,000 represents a seed round; the company has not yet shared any public information about follow-on rounds or specific revenue figures.

International ambitions from Groningen

Enatom aims to grow into a player in high-end 3D visualisations for healthcare training worldwide. Its current user base is in Europe, but the company says it has contacts with institutions outside the continent. Enatom has not yet announced any public agreements outside Europe.

The expansion of the sales team is consistent with that international orientation: medical faculties and hospitals typically involve lengthy sales cycles with multiple decision-makers. A larger commercial team increases the capacity to develop multiple markets simultaneously.

Within the Dutch healthtech landscape, Enatom is an example of a university spin-out that has attracted external funding and built international partnerships relatively quickly after its founding. The fact that the company has secured both regional capital through NOM and sector-specific capital through LUMO Labs and UNETI Ventures illustrates that multiple layers of financing are available in the Netherlands for early-stage companies operating at the intersection of healthcare and technology.