(ZEISS: Oberkochen, Germany) -- ZEISS Ventures has participated in the 3.5 million euros pre-Series A financing round for Custom Surgical, a Munich-based medical technology company focused on digitizing and standardizing ophthalmology workflows.

The funding round, led by Ventech and joined by ZEISS along with a group of other investors, will support Custom Surgical’s mission to modernize eye care, which currently relies heavily on analog tools.

The company offers hardware-agnostic solutions that digitize ophthalmic workflows, seamlessly integrating into existing clinical environments. Its approach retrofits slit lamps and surgical microscopes, enabling practices to capture and manage visual data without replacing core equipment or disrupting workflows. Central to its offering is MicroREC Connect, a cloud-based platform for secure capture, storage, and organization of ophthalmic images and videos. This platform is designed as a unifying digital layer, rather than a traditional image archive, by enhancing patient documentation and creating digital continuity in examinations, procedures, and follow-ups.

Boris Hofmann, head of ZEISS Ventures, says, “We strongly believe that Custom Surgical’s digitalized ophthalmology workflows have the potential to transform global eye health by effortlessly integrating traditional diagnostic practices with advanced AI tools, ultimately improving patient care.”

Federico Acosta, CEO of Custom Surgical, says, “Global demand for eye care is growing at a pace that current clinical processes can no longer sustain. Scalable digital workflows are essential to enable fast, accurate screening for a growing worldwide population.”

With this pre-Series A round, Custom Surgical is poised for global expansion and advancement toward becoming the data standard for anterior segment ophthalmology, enabling improved care, outcomes, and AI-powered eye health applications.

Custom Surgical’s strategy involves first digitizing and standardizing workflows, followed by introducing AI-based clinical support tools. Future applications aim to assist healthcare professionals by enhancing image capture quality, supporting treatment urgency, and optimizing referral pathways, all while keeping clinicians in control.

The optical workflow system MicroREC digitizes health information from microscopes or slit lamps and enables efficient data exchange. Credit: Zeiss