Belgium: EIB provides €20 million in financing to SamanTree Medical for real-time microscopy for surgical procedures

This article is published in association with European Investment Bank.

• Belgian med-tech company SamanTree Medical lands InvestEU-backed financing to boost research, development and innovation of advanced microscopy scanner tech.
• SamanTree’s advanced microscopy scanner allows rapid, real-time imaging of internal microstructures of tissue samples for surgical procedures, notably for breast cancer.EIB-funding will accelerate development of the Histolog® Scanner and reinforce commercialisation efforts across Europe and United States.

SamanTree Medical, a European leader in surgical imaging innovation, has secured €20 million in financing from the European Investment Bank (EIB). The operation is backed by InvestEU, the EU’s flagship program to mobilize over €372 billion in additional investment from 2021 to 2027.

The financing supports the development of an advanced confocal microscopy scanner for rapid imaging of the internal microstructure of tissue samples during surgical procedures. Furthermore, the financing will support SamanTree Medical’s research, development and innovative activities, including continued development and advancement of its Histolog® Scanner, the first and only medical imaging device featuring massively parallel confocal microscopy.

The EIB financing is provided through the Bank’s Venture Debt Instrument and is designed to support highly innovative companies undertaking research-intensive development activities. By extending the company’s cash runway and de-risking its development plan, the financing is expected to help accelerate product development and reinforce SamanTree’s commercialization efforts across Europe and the United States.

“Our investment in SamanTree Medical reflects the EIB’s long-standing commitment to advancing medical innovation across Europe.” said EIB Director Alessandro Izzo. “By supporting med‑tech companies through venture debt, a tool that helps entrepreneurs accelerate growth and bring cutting-edge technologies to patients sooner, we make sure that key medical tech companies can grow and thrive in Europe. Supporting innovators like SamanTree Medical is central to our mission of driving positive impact for patients and healthcare systems.”

“The support of the European Investment Bank represents an important milestone for SamanTree,” said Olivier Delporte, CEO of SamanTree Medical. “This financing allows us to accelerate development of the Histolog Scanner, expand our commercial presence across Europe and the United States. The rigorous due diligence process undertaken by the EIB reflects the importance of our innovative technology, our development plan and our long-term vision for advancing real-time, high-resolution imaging for excised tissue.”

The advanced technique of the Histolog Scanner enables it to capture nearly 30,000 images simultaneously, rather than one at a time, producing high-resolution, histology-like images in approximately one minute without damaging the specimen. This allows surgeons and

pathologists to image tissue within minutes and determine whether abnormal cellular microstructures remain at the surgical site, while patients remain on the operating table. Used in more than 6,000 patients to date, physicians using the Histolog Scanner have demonstrated compelling results across multiple tissue types. In breast-conserving surgery, the SHIELD study showed that when physicians used the Histolog images for assessment, reoperation rates were lowered from 30% to 10%, a 67% reduction.

Research has also shown that Histolog is similar[1] when compared to intraoperative frozen-section analysis (the gold standard) for prostatectomies, while offering substantial time savings. Using Histolog for imaging and interpretation takes approximately 5-20 minutes, compared with 45-60 minutes for frozen section analysis.[2] Using the Histolog images, physicians have has also demonstrated a sensitivity ranging from 73% – 91% and a specificity ranging from 91% to 100%, when compared to conventional pathology.[3]^,[4],[5] Additionally, studies have shown that intraoperative assessment allows surgeons to opt for more nerve-sparing surgeries, significantly reducing erectile dysfunction, a common side effect of a radical prostatectomy.[6]

Background information    

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union, owned by its Member States. The EIB finances investments in eight core priorities that support EU policy objectives: climate action and the environment, digitalisation and technological innovation, security and defence, cohesion, agriculture and the bioeconomy, social infrastructure, a stronger Europe in a more peaceful and prosperous world and Europe’s capital markets union.   

The InvestEU programme provides the European Union with long-term funding by leveraging substantial private and public funds in support of a sustainable recovery. It also helps to crowd in private investment for the European Union’s strategic priorities such as the European Green Deal and the digital transition. InvestEU brings all EU financial instruments previously available for supporting investments within the European Union together under one roof, making funding for investment projects in Europe simpler, more efficient and more flexible. The programme consists of three components: the InvestEU Fund, the InvestEU Advisory Hub, and the InvestEU Portal. The InvestEU Fund is deployed through implementing partners that will invest in projects using the EU budget guarantee of €26.2 billion. The entire budget guarantee will back the investment projects of the implementing partners, increase their risk-bearing capacity and thus mobilise at least €372 billion in additional investment.

Headquartered in Liège, Belgium, SamanTree Medical is a privately held company dedicated to improving oncologic surgery through innovative imaging solutions. Its flagship product, the Swiss-developed Histolog® Scanner, enables surgeons and pathologists to visualize large, fresh tissue samples in real-time with exceptional resolution and accuracy, making it uniquely suited for intraoperative environments. Founded in 2014 based on innovations from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), a leading Swiss research institute renowned for engineering and technological advancements, SamanTree Medical is committed to improving surgical precision and outcomes by enabling real-time fresh tissue imaging. The Histolog Scanner is CE marked in the European Union and received FDA clearance in the U.S. in 2024. For more information, please visit samantree.com.

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39403832/

[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36440864/

[3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39403832/

[4] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39403832/

[5]IP8-FLUORESCE: A Prospective Paired Cohort Study Evaluating the Diagnostic Accuracy of Fluorescence Confocal Microscopy for Real-time Assessment of Surgical Margins in Radical Prostatectomy – PubMed

[6] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(25)00091-9/fulltext