Sweden’s Cytely raises €3 million as labs report 75% faster analysis using its smart microscopy platform

Cytely, a Lund-based DeepTech startup, has secured €3 million in a new funding round to power the expansion of Cytely’s smart microscopy platform, which transforms standard laboratory microscopes into real-time data engines, drastically reducing the time scientists spend on manual analysis.

The round was led by Ugly Duckling Ventures, with continued support from existing investor Icebreaker.vc. Cytely is part of the portfolio at SmiLe Venture Hub and has team members based in Lund, San Diego, and Singapore.

“Scientists have been constrained by workflows built for images, not data. Cytely transforms any microscope into a real-time measurement instrument, closing the loop from acquisition to decision on an experiment-day timescale rather than a grant cycle,” said Philip Nordenfelt, Cytely Co-founder & CEO. “Our goal is to make every experiment analysis-ready from creation, so discoveries stack and science compounds.”

The funding announced for Cytely fits within a broader European DeepTech and HealthTech pattern seen across 2025.

In February 2025, QT Sense (Netherlands) secured €6 million to develop its quantum-sensing technology for single-cell diagnostics, while Pixel Photonics (Germany) received €1 million in grant funding to advance multi-mode photon detectors for microscopy and diagnostics.

Together, these raises illustrate a shared focus on automation, precision imaging, and data-centric research infrastructures. Within this context, Cytely’s smart-microscopy approach – enabling real-time, analysis-ready data from standard instruments – positions it as part of a growing European movement towards accessible, scalable scientific innovation.

“Their vision is truly transformative. We’re thrilled to lead this round and support the mission to make smart, data‑centric microscopy accessible to every lab,” said Louise Lachmann, Partner at Ugly Duckling Ventures.

Founded in 2023, Cytely builds data-centric tools for biological discovery. Its core platform allows labs to capture, process, and analyse complex cellular data automatically. This makes the traditionally slow and manual process of microscopy analysis not only faster but also statistically robust – unlocking new possibilities for labs that may not have had access to high-end infrastructure.

The company was co-founded by Philip Nordenfelt, who also serves as CEO. With a background in immunology and mechanobiology, Nordenfelt brings both scientific and technical credibility to the table. His mission is to transform the current microscopy bottleneck into a feedback-rich workflow that accelerates hypothesis testing and discovery.

The platform has already been adopted by major research institutions, including Lund University, and is being used in biomedical research fields such as virology, oncology, and metabolic diseases.

“Cytely’s software is a democratising force in science. It decouples world‑class discovery from world‑class funding, empowering any researcher with a microscope to tackle the biggest challenges in human health. All microscopy will become ‘smart microscopy’; Cytely is turning the ‘wild west’ of possibility into a powerful, accessible platform that will accelerate discovery for researchers everywhere,” said Dr Vinay Swaminathan, Head of the Laboratory of Cell & Molecular Mechanobiology at Lund University.

Traditionally, microscopy has revolved around static images, leaving researchers to manually assess individual cells – a process that can take weeks and often fails to produce data with statistical confidence.

Cytely looks to change that paradigm by making data, not pictures, the primary outcome. Its system automates image acquisition, quantifies entire samples, and offers results that are standardised, reproducible, and analysis-ready in real time. The software is hardware-agnostic, designed to work with most modern microscopes, eliminating the need for costly, specialised imaging rigs.

“Finally, we feel like this project is actually working… We’re collecting large‑scale data and unraveling mechanisms of viral latency, something that just wasn’t possible before,” said Prof. Alex Evilevitch.

A case from Lund University exemplifies the platform’s impact: researchers studying herpesvirus latency were previously unable to process more than 0.1% of their sample data due to manual limitations. Using Cytely, they reportedly processed nearly 100% of samples and identified a previously unobservable cell-line defence mechanism. The change enabled them to redesign their protocol and achieve more progress in one month than in the previous five years.

Beyond academia, Cytely is delivering strong returns in commercial settings. A cancer research lab using the platform reduced manual analysis time by 75%, saving approximately €300k annually – effectively doubling its workforce.

A nanowire BioTech company increased its R&D throughput by 40%, estimating an additional $1 million in annual value. Another lab replaced a €400k high-throughput imaging setup entirely with Cytely’s pipeline on existing microscopes.

The newly secured funding will support the development of intelligent acquisition tools compatible with all microscope brands, and create one-click workflows for researchers regardless of their data analysis skills.

These enhancements aim to turn the platform into a fully integrated discovery network, where validated protocols and datasets can be shared, replayed, and iterated upon—ultimately laying the foundation for predictive analysis and partially autonomous research.

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