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Additional financial participation by Kickfund, Valuemaker and business angels
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Appointment of M2care’s Carsten Laue to Rhovica Board of Directors
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SoNav™ provides real-time, bedside navigation for safer and faster EVD catheter placement in emergency care
Bern, Switzerland and Lyon, France, 26 August 2025 – Rhovica Neuroimaging AG (Rhovica), a Swiss MedTech start-up, has raised CHF 2.3 million (EUR 2.5 million) in a financing round led by M2care, with participation from Kickfund, Valuemaker and several other business angels. The funding will accelerate the development of SoNav, Rhovica’s bedside navigation system for extraventricular drainage (EVD) catheters used in emergency neurosurgery.
Martin Hlavica, CEO and Co-founder of Rhovica, stated: “This fundraising marks an important milestone for Rhovica. The trust of our investors strengthens our ability to advance the development of SoNav and move closer to making this solution available to patients in need.”
Florence Thueux, President of M2care, commented: “M2care combines investment capacity with hands-on expertise to de-risk early healthtech ventures to Series-A readiness. Rhovica reflects this approach: addressing a clear clinical need with a strong team and a technology that can transform emergency neurosurgery. We are proud to actively support the company in this next phase of development.”
Rhovica addresses a critical challenge in emergency neurosurgery: the safe and fast placement of life-saving EVD catheters to relieve increased intracranial pressure, for example after severe trauma or intracranial bleeding. Today, neurosurgeons typically perform this emergency procedure blindly. Real-time visualization and navigation is not available directly at the bedside increasing clinical risks. Rhovica’s SoNav system is designed to provide bedside real-time visualization and guidance to improve speed, accuracy and subsequent patient monitoring in intensive care. With this approach, the company positions itself in the growing neurosurgical device market environment, which is expected to grow between 4.5%1 and 14.2%2 in the coming years.
To further strengthen its development, Rhovica has appointed Carsten Laue, Managing Director at M2care, to its Board of Directors. His expertise in medtech strategy and company building will support the company in advancing SoNav™ toward clinical adoption.
Carsten Laue added: “By joining Rhovica’s board, I look forward to actively supporting the team in translating a strong clinical need into a viable medtech solution. The project’s origin in emergency neurosurgical care, combined with the founders’ complementary expertise, reflects precisely the type of innovation that M2care is set up to accelerate.”
This financing round was led by M2care, alongside Swiss investment firms Kickfund and Valuemaker, as well as several business angels. Together, they bring strong medtech expertise and networks that will support Rhovica in its next phase of development.
About Rhovica Neuroimaging AG
Rhovica Neuroimaging AG, founded in Bern in 2023 by neurosurgeons Martin Hlavica and Thomas Rhomberg, is pioneering solutions to improve emergency treatment for patients with life- threatening increased brain pressure. One of the most common procedures in such cases is the placement of an external ventricular drain (EVD) to relieve dangerous elevated brain pressure. Today, this is often performed freehand at the bedside—fast but imprecise—or with navigation systems in the operating room, which delays urgent care. This trade-off between speed and accuracy can worsen patient outcomes. Rhovica’s SoNav system addresses this challenge with integrated sensors that provide real-time visualization for guided catheter insertion directly at the bedside. The technology will also enable continuous monitoring of brain ventricles, reducing repeated CT scans, improving safety and outcomes, and lowering costs. Rhovica has won all three stages of Venture Kick, the Helbling Venture Challenge 2024, reached the finals of the Swiss Technology Award 2024, and in 2025 was selected as a winner of the IMD Startup Competition, securing access to IMD’s Executive MBA expertise.
For more information: www.rhovica.com
About M2care
M2care is a European venture studio created by Mérieux Développement and CEA Investissement, specializing in healthtech. M2care founds, develops, and finances innovative projects at early stages of maturity, alongside project leaders. M2care is an essential link between academics, investors, and industry, thanks to its investment and operational deployment capabilities. With an experienced and complementary team of entrepreneurs in residence, a unique international network, and ad-hoc ecosystems built for each project, M2care enables ideas and technologies born in laboratories to become health products brought to market, serving public health improvement and benefiting patients.
For more information: www.m2.care
Contact:
Rhovica Neuroimaging AG : martin.hlavica@rhovica.com
M2Care : contact@m2.care
Press Contact:
MC Services AG
Stephanie Radosevic
Phone: +49 1712207903
E-Mail: stephanie.radosevic@mc-services.eu
1 Persistence Market Research 2023: Neurosurgery Market
2 Data Bridge Market Research 2022: Global Neurosurgery Market – Industry Trends and Forecast to 2029Press Release
