beteili­gungs­man­age­ment thürin­gen GmbH (bm|t), together with Sparkasse Jena-Saale-Hol­z­land, is par­tic­i­pat­ing in the first clos­ing of a seed financ­ing round with a mid-six-fig­ure invest­ment in PERCEPTEC GmbH. The invest­ment will be used to bring a highly inno­v­a­tive test pro­ce­dure for the effi­cient deter­mi­na­tion of visual defects to mar­ket matu­rity — from devel­op­ment to clin­i­cal val­i­da­tion and med­ical approval.

PERCEPTEC GmbH was founded in Jena in May 2024 and is a MedTech startup that dri­ves dig­i­tal­iza­tion and automa­tion in the oph­thalmic and oph­thal­mo­log­i­cal indus­try. The focus is on the dis­rup­tive redesign of a vir­tual eye test that com­bines an intu­itive test pro­ce­dure with advanced 3D dis­play tech­nol­ogy — with the aim of improv­ing the effi­ciency and acces­si­bil­ity of eye diag­nos­tics world­wide. Accord­ing to the WHO, only 36% of the world’s 2.2 bil­lion peo­ple with visual impair­ment have suit­able access to appro­pri­ate diag­nos­tics and care — a huge med­ical care deficit with far-reach­ing social consequences.

The con­ven­tional eye test has hardly seen any inno­va­tion for over 100 years. Not only is it immo­bile and space-con­sum­ing, it is also time-con­sum­ing and equip­ment- and per­son­nel-inten­sive. This is pre­cisely where PERCEPTEC comes in: The inter­nal devel­op­ment of an auto­mated, intu­itively applic­a­ble test pro­ce­dure — visu­al­ized by vision­ary 3D dis­play tech­nol­ogy from coop­er­a­tion part­ners — enables a vir­tual eye test that can be car­ried out inde­pen­dently, quickly and in a space-sav­ing man­ner by the per­son being exam­ined. By sav­ing time, space and spe­cial­ist per­son­nel, a cost-effi­cient deter­mi­na­tion of defec­tive vision is made pos­si­ble and at the same time the diag­nos­tic process is opti­mized for the user. This cre­ates low-thresh­old and com­pre­hen­sive access to pre­cise diagnostics.

The first tar­get mar­ket is sta­tion­ary opti­cians and oph­thal­mol­o­gists in the DACH region and neigh­bor­ing coun­tries (DACH+). The num­ber of poten­tially replace­able eye test devices is around 85,000 units. A high will­ing­ness to invest on the part of users and unique prod­uct fea­tures ensure rapid mar­ket pen­e­tra­tion. Once estab­lished in DACH+, PERCEPTEC plans to expand into other Euro­pean and inter­na­tional mar­kets. Addi­tional fields of appli­ca­tion are also con­ceiv­able: The eye test, which can be car­ried out inde­pen­dently, can also be used in facil­i­ties close to patients, e.g. at GPs, health cen­ters or phar­ma­cies. Once estab­lished in the sta­tion­ary mar­ket, mobile appli­ca­tions are planned — for exam­ple for screen­ings in schools or in rural regions with lim­ited oph­thal­mo­log­i­cal care.

With the joint seed invest­ment, bm|t and Sparkasse Jena-Saale-Hol­z­land are lay­ing the foun­da­tion for the tar­geted and sus­tain­able progress of PERCEPTEC GmbH. A sec­ond clos­ing of the seed round is open until Sep­tem­ber 2025; pri­vate investors are still being sought for this. In addi­tion, the cap­i­tal raised will be lever­aged by fund­ing (FTI-Thürin­gen Tech­nolo­gie: max­i­mum fund­ing vol­ume EUR 1 mil­lion, fund­ing rate 70%). The cap­i­tal will be used for the fur­ther devel­op­ment, clin­i­cal val­i­da­tion and cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of the soft­ware-based test pro­ce­dure — with the aim of launch­ing the first med­ical prod­uct on the mar­ket in 2027 and sub­se­quently expand­ing the prod­uct portfolio.

About Perceptec

PERCEPTEC GmbH, based in Jena, was founded in May 2024 by Dr. Markus Leicht (CEO), Dr. Ilka Urban and Nico Trinks. The now four-per­son team, sup­ple­mented by Muham­mad Fahad, is devel­op­ing a soft­ware-sup­ported solu­tion for the effi­cient, auto­mated deter­mi­na­tion of defec­tive vision in vir­tual space. With this dis­rup­tive approach, PERCEPTEC addresses the lim­i­ta­tions of the clas­sic eye test. The vir­tual eye test can be used intu­itively and inde­pen­dently, and is also space-sav­ing and suit­able for mobile use — in line with the fun­da­men­tal sim­pli­fi­ca­tion of eye diagnostics.
Fur­ther infor­ma­tion at: www.perceptec.de

About bm|t

bm|t, based in Erfurt, is the lead­ing address for cor­po­rate invest­ments in Thuringia. bm|t cur­rently man­ages twelve funds with a total vol­ume of around 445 mil­lion euros, which invest in inno­v­a­tive com­pa­nies in almost all sec­tors and devel­op­ment phases — whether in the start-up and growth phase or in com­pany successions.
Fur­ther infor­ma­tion at: www.bm‑t.de

About Sparkasse Jena-Saale-Holzland

Sparkasse Jena-Saale-Hol­z­land has been rooted in the region since 1828 and offers finan­cial ser­vices, advice and sub­si­dies for com­pa­nies and com­mu­ni­ties. As the largest regional finan­cial part­ner, it improves the qual­ity of life through dig­i­tal­iza­tion, financ­ing and pub­lic pro­grams. The Sparkasse actively sup­ports the econ­omy, edu­ca­tion, sport and cul­ture in the region. It pro­motes inno­va­tion by sup­port­ing start-ups and, together with the Busi­ness Angels Club Jena e.V., has cre­ated a plat­form that con­nects start-ups with pri­vate investors in order to strengthen the regional start-up ecosystem.
Read more: www.s‑jena.de