JIC Ventures backs Carebot in second European medtech deal

JIC Ventures invested in Czech medical AI startup Carebot as part of a more than €1.5 million round, betting on evidence of hospital adoption over lab results or certification alone. The Brno-based fund says Carebot’s spread across more than 10 countries shows where European medtech can win.

Why it matters: - JIC Ventures is signaling that European medical AI will be won by clinical adoption, not just product development or certification. - Carebot’s growth across hospitals in multiple regions suggests demand for AI tools that radiologists and clinicians actually use every day. - The investment is JIC Ventures’ second in healthcare technology and reinforces its focus on certified products already embedded in real clinical practice.

What happened: - JIC Ventures backed Carebot, a Czech company based in Brno that uses AI to read medical images. - The investment came as part of Carebot’s largest round to date, valued at more than €1.5 million. - Garage Angels and Electron Capital Partners led the round. - Carebot’s AI is used by hundreds of hospitals across more than 10 countries. - The fund described the company’s hospital adoption as the key reason for the deal.

The details: - Carebot tripled the number of hospitals running its AI over the past year. - Carebot grew contracted monthly recurring revenue by 750% over the same period. - Signed contracts point to more than tenfold growth by the end of 2026. - Carebot now has three CE-certified products: Carebot AI CXR for chest X-rays, AI Bones for fracture detection, and Carebot AI MMG for mammogram reading in breast-cancer screening. - Carebot’s AI is deployed across Europe, the Middle East and Vietnam. - JIC Ventures’ Radim Kocourek said radiologists described cases where Carebot flagged findings that might otherwise have been missed. - Kocourek said the team also fit the technology into the daily running of hospitals. - JIC Ventures previously backed HTG Medical, a Czech company with an MDR-certified device that automates hourly urine-output measurement in intensive care units. - HTG Medical saves nurses about an hour a day of manual transcription and sends data directly into hospital systems. - HTG Medical was proven on a cardiovascular ICU at Prague’s IKEM before expanding into Western Europe. - JIC Ventures said the pattern matters: regulatory approval opens the door, but adoption builds a company. - JIC Ventures focuses on pre-seed and seed-stage startups in Central and Eastern Europe and invests up to €1 million per deal. - The fund was initiated by JIC innovation agency, which has more than 20 years of experience building an innovation ecosystem. - JIC Ventures also offers founders access to a network of founders, mentors and ecosystem partners. - JIC Ventures lists its website as more information. - JIC also lists its website as more information. - JIC Ventures has a LinkedIn page at the fund’s social profile.

Between the lines: - The investment reflects a broader thesis in medtech: certification can prove a product is safe, but it does not prove clinicians will rely on it. - Carebot’s strongest selling point for investors appears to be traction inside hospitals, where diagnostic tools either become part of workflow or stall out. - The focus on customer testimony and workflow integration suggests JIC Ventures is looking for companies that can bridge the gap between technical validation and routine use.

What’s next: - Carebot is raising a larger round targeting up to €10 million. - The company plans to use the new capital for global expansion, stronger commercial and local teams, and faster scaling across different healthcare systems. - Carebot plans to launch new tools aimed at detecting disease earlier. - CEO Matěj Misař said the company wants to scale while keeping core know-how, quality and innovation in-house. - Carebot is also pursuing global partnerships, including with some of the largest pharmaceutical companies. - Carebot’s goal is to make AI a standard part of healthcare.

The bottom line: - JIC Ventures is betting that the next European medtech winners will be the ones that move from certification to daily clinical dependence.