Strategic partnership forges innovation in Luxembourg HealthTech

Luxembourg Institute of Health and Catalpa Ventures join forces

• Business Development Office

Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) and Catalpa Ventures have forged a partnership to drive innovation in digital health, aiming to bridge scientific research and venture capital in the country’s thriving health-tech sector. This collaboration, emphasizing knowledge transfer and marketable healthcare solutions, underscores Luxembourg’s commitment to cultivate an environment where research seamlessly transitions into tangible healthcare solutions, contributing to positive change in the healthcare landscape.

On the 27^th February 2024, Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) and Catalpa Ventures entered into a five-year collaborative agreement, marking a significant milestone in Luxembourg’s evolving HealthTech sector. Catalpa is a Venture Capital Firm specialized in investing in early-stage technology companies revolutionizing healthcare and recently opened its doors in Luxembourg. The collaboration seeks to capitalize on the synergy between scientific research and venture capital, particularly focusing on advancing digital health technologies.

Luxembourg’s commitment to fostering healthTech innovation, supported by governmental initiatives and research institutions like the LIH, positions the country as a hub for translational e-health. Catalpa Ventures, recognizing this potential, aims to play a pivotal role by establishing a venture capital fund specializing in HealthTech startups.

The agreement outlines a strategic framework for collaboration, encompassing various activities such as supporting LIH in hackathons, competitions, and the creation of spin-offs in Luxembourg. Catalpa Ventures, in return, aims to strengthen its venture capital activities by leveraging LIH’s scientific expertise, offering startups unique added value with specialised insights, guidance, and support from LIH’s scientific community, potentially setting them apart in the competitive landscape and encouraging innovation within the healthcare sector.

Prof Ulf Nehrbass, CEO of LIH, expressed enthusiasm about the collaboration, emphasizing the potential for knowledge transfer and the application of Catalpa’s financial expertise to propel research into marketable healthcare solutions.

We believe that the numerous opportunities for knowledge transfer arising from this partnership and the availability of Catalpa’s financial and investment expertise to our researchers will create a bridge between research and its commercialisation. This will ensure that our scientific findings are marketable and can be translated into tangible healthcare solutions, easily accessible by clinicians and patients.

Prof Nehrbass stated.

Dr Thomas Goergen, one of the Founding Partners of Catalpa, highlighted the collaborative effort to unlock the potential of digital health and translational research, ultimately contributing to improved healthcare and patient outcomes.

“When determining where to initiate our VC activities, choosing Luxembourg was a logical decision for us,” explained Dr Goergen. “Due to our positive experiences with Luxembourg as entrepreneurs ourselves we look forward to being the reliable partner for the dynamically growing ecosystem for HealthTech startups. This entails not only supporting ambitious Luxembourgish companies but also attracting HealthTech firms from Europe and beyond to utilize Luxembourg as their launchpad for international scaling.”

Both parties expressed their commitment to establishing a lasting strategic cooperation that bridges the worlds of research and finance in Luxembourg. The aim is to attract innovative e-health companies, unlocking the full potential of digital health and translational research. This collaboration underscores Luxembourg’s dedication to promoting an environment where research seamlessly transitions into tangible healthcare solutions, driving positive change in the healthcare landscape.

About the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH)

The Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) is a public biomedical research organization focused on precision health and invested in becoming a leading reference in Europe for the translation of scientific excellence into meaningful benefits for patients.

LIH places the patient at the heart of all its activities, driven by a collective obligation towards society to use knowledge and technology arising from research on patient derived data to have a direct impact on people’s health. Its dedicated teams of multidisciplinary researchers strive for excellence, generating relevant knowledge linked to immune related diseases and cancer.

The institute embraces collaborations, disruptive technology and process innovation as unique opportunities to improve the application of diagnostics and therapeutics with the long-term goal of preventing disease.

About Catalpa Ventures

Catalpa Ventures is a Luxembourg headquartered Venture Capital firm exclusively dedicated to technology-driven solutions to enhance human health. The firm is led by four founding partners, combining medical expertise, fund management experience and an outstanding entrepreneurial track record. The fund will not only provide venture capital to HealthTech startups from pre-seed to Series A, but will also offer significant added value to the development of the companies through active participation in the Luxembourg HealthTech ecosystem.