CollimateHealth, a Munich-based life sciences startup developing next-generation radiation therapy for oncology, has closed a €6M seed round backed by VP Venture Partners, Positron, XISTA Science Ventures, High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), and caesar.
The round was oversubscribed. The company will use the funding to build its first clinical prototype and generate the preclinical data required to advance through regulatory approval, with a goal of treating its first patients by the end of 2028.
Addressing The Market Opportunity
Conventional radiation therapy uses broad, low-dose beams to treat tumors and can cause significant side effects for patients. CollimateHealth is developing an approach that works through a different physical and biological mechanism, one the company believes can both reduce those side effects and activate the body’s own immune system against cancer cells.
The company is targeting tumor types that current radiation methods treat with limited effectiveness, including cases where the surrounding tissue constraints make high-dose conventional treatment difficult.
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How The Technology Works
CollimateHealth’s microbeam radiation therapy delivers bundled beams in the micrometre range at doses significantly higher than those used in standard radiation treatment. The concentration of energy causes an especially intense form of cell death in targeted tumor tissue, which increases antigen presentation and triggers an immune response against cancer cells that can extend beyond the primarily treated area.
The narrow channels created during treatment also improve the penetration of therapeutics into tumor tissue, creating potential for use alongside chemotherapy and immunotherapy. A central technical achievement is the reduction of equipment that typically requires a large synchrotron facility into a system with a footprint of under ten square meters, making the technology viable for clinical deployment.
The underlying science was developed over nearly a decade in collaboration with the Technical University of Munich, TUM University Hospital rechts der Isar, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Helmholtz Institute Mainz, Forschungszentrum Jülich, the Institute of Cancer Research, and The Royal Marsden Hospital in London.
Growth And Market Traction
CollimateHealth was launched as a venture-build project by VP Venture Partners and co-founded by Prof. Dr Stefan Bartzsch, Chief Scientific Officer, Dr Johanna Winter, Chief Technology Officer, and Dr Hans Maria Heÿn, Chief Executive Officer. Bartzsch and Winter led the technical development of the core technology before the company was formally established.
The company has received support from UnternehmerTUM, TUM Venture Lab Healthcare, BioM, BayStartUP, and Medical Valley, and has been recognized with a Falling Walls Award in 2025 and the MedTech Ideator Award at Best of Biotech in Vienna in 2025.
Expansion Plans
The €6M seed round will fund the construction of CollimateHealth’s first clinical prototype and the generation of preclinical data to support future regulatory submissions. The company is targeting first-patient use by the end of 2028, with potential applications spanning radiation therapy, chemotherapy combinations, and immunotherapy.
Looking Ahead
Dr Hans Maria Heÿn, CEO of CollimateHealth, described the scope of the technical challenge the team has addressed: “What Stefan Bartzsch, Johanna Winter and the interdisciplinary team have achieved through years of academic research is truly exceptional. Shrinking the medical beamline of a synchrotron into a system with a footprint of less than 10 square metres is a genuine deep-tech moonshot with the potential to fundamentally change cancer treatment.”
Dr Jan Engels, Senior Investment Manager at HTGF, explained what drew the firm to the company: “CollimateHealth is exactly the kind of deep-tech venture HTGF was founded to support: a world-class scientific team translating years of rigorous research into a technology that could genuinely change outcomes for cancer patients. What excites us most is not just the physics, it’s the clinical ambition. The team has a clear path to first-patient use, and we are proud to back them on that journey.”
About CollimateHealth
CollimateHealth is a Munich-based life sciences company developing clinically scalable microbeam radiation therapy for oncology. Co-founded by Prof. Dr Stefan Bartzsch, Dr Johanna Winter, and Dr Hans Maria Heÿn, the company is working to bring a new approach to cancer treatment that uses high-dose, micrometre-range radiation beams to trigger immune responses against tumors while reducing the side effects associated with conventional radiation therapy. CollimateHealth aims to treat its first patients by the end of 2028.
