Calm Storm Ventures
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According to Sifted data, Calm/Storm is the most active specialist healthtech VC in Europe. Polagnoli says the firm saw 92% of all Europe's public pre-seed digital health rounds between July and September. This isn't marketing fluff – they're genuinely everywhere in European healthtech. Named #1 HealthTech investor in Europe since 2020, but here's the thing: they're obsessed with taboo topics like sexual wellness, fertility, and mental health – areas other VCs won't touch. What sets Calm/Storm apart is its intimate, founder-focused style. Created by founders for founders, it fosters a close-knit network. Lucanus acts more like a co-founder than a typical VC, which can be amazing or suffocating depending on your style. They're genuinely helpful but expect serious commitment to their community-first approach.
- —Best for: Healthtech founders tackling taboo/sensitive topics who want hands-on support
- —Watch out for: Expect deep involvement - they're not check-writers, they're co-builders
- —Known for: Being Europe's most active healthtech investor with genuine founder empathy
Calm/Storm invests in purpose driven founders changing our life, health and wellbeing for the better. Their shared belief is simple yet powerful: healthcare needs to shift from reacting to sickness towards empowering people to prevent it in the first place.
The fund deploys four types of tickets: discovery, pre-seed, seed and post-seed. With pre-seed tickets — which are used most often — it aims to take a 5-10% stake. They focus on HealthTech including "digital health" and "well-being", prevention and care, B2B and B2C startups. Calm/Storm Ventures looks for founders who share this vision, often investing very early with checks from €50,000 to €300,000.
He switched sides again and became Partner at Speedinvest, today one of Europe's most active seed-stage investors. In 2014 Lucanus successfully helped raising Speedinvest's fund II, built the first health-team of the firm. With his passion to help entrepreneurs in difficult situations and his hands-on approach it feels that Lucanus takes on startup challenges more like a co-founder or business angel than a VC.
Past Role: Gustav, Co-Founder & CTO. Michael Ströck, a serial entrepreneur with experience in tech-enabled consumer platforms. Together, they blend venture expertise with entrepreneurial empathy, fostering a collaborative culture "by founders, for founders".
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