Cavell Raises €1.5 Million to Make Healthcare More Efficient and Patient-Centered
- Cavell
- May 2
- 3 min read
Ghent, Monday May 5, 2025 – Cavell, a digital health startup based in Ghent’s Wintercircus, announces that it has raised €1.5 million in a pre-seed funding round. With this investment, the company brings several strategic investors on board to accelerate growth in Belgium and across Europe, both in primary and secondary care.
Cavell was founded about a year ago by Anthony Rathé, Pieter Olivier, and Louis Verdonckt to tackle one of the biggest pain points in healthcare: administrative overload and poor medical data quality. Pieter, a neurologist at AZ Sint-Lucas and co-founder, saw the need firsthand every day:"As a physician, I noticed how much time was lost to reporting and admin. It was frustrating to see how much that took away from real patient care." That’s why the three created Cavell. The software listens during consultations, surgeries, or nurse rounds, and automatically generates a medical report — coded when necessary — that goes straight into the patient’s file.
Today, Cavell is already delivering a clear impact on the ground. This is confirmed by several hospitals and GP practices where Cavell is now in use. Here are a few testimonials:
“Cavell’s story illustrates how impactful innovation can emerge from clinical practice. Innovative thinking has become a necessity for hospitals. We don’t just want to rely on external tech — we want to foster innovation and entrepreneurship within our staff and physicians.”
— Thierry Freyne, CEO of AZ Sint-Lucas in Ghent, a hospital closely tied to Cavell’s origin.
“Thanks to Cavell, I can fully focus on the patient and their story. Cavell gives me a clear summary of the anamnesis. It saves me time, improves patient interaction, and results in more complete notes in my EHR.”
— Pieter Vanderschaeve, Medined GP Practice
"At AZ Oostende, we are fully committed to artificial intelligence through our innovation cell HiTide. The collaboration with Cavell fits within our vision to reduce screen time for caregivers and promote more direct patient interaction. The nurses, doctors, and paramedics using Cavell are very enthusiastic about the immediate impact it has on their work."
— Brecht Dekeyser, Director of Data & IT at AZ Oostende
“At the European Hip Center, the patient is central. While we give our full attention to the patient, structured data points are immediately entered into the patient record and even our backend data warehouse. A huge leap forward in data-driven precision medicine.”
— Stijn Roose, CEO of the European Hip Center
“By integrating Cavell into our hospital, we’re taking a major step toward care innovation. This tool reduces workload for our healthcare professionals, optimizes data entry, and helps deliver higher quality care to our patients.”
— Frank Staelens, Director of Care Innovation at AZORG
With the funding, the Cavell team aims to further develop the company into the standard for capturing, structuring, and processing medical data — in every clinical setting, for every user. The focus is on building reliable, scalable technology that fits seamlessly into the daily reality of healthcare providers and integrates perfectly with existing software systems. "Our goal isn’t just to be a digital health tool," says Anthony, co-founder. “We’re building technology that truly works for people in healthcare — robust, user-friendly, and integrated. Only then can we make a lasting difference.”
The capital will also support Cavell’s international rollout. Co-founder Louis Verdonckt sees the funding as a key milestone: "Several promising partnerships are in the pipeline to bring Cavell to many healthcare providers in Belgium. But our ambition goes beyond Belgium — we want to improve healthcare across Europe. Thanks to the trust of our investors, we can now scale faster and increase our impact. We’re incredibly excited to keep building a care system that truly revolves around the patient."
For more information, visit www.cavell.ai
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