Meerkat

Co-founders Jörg Holstein and Klaus Kleber lead investment activity. Holstein brings two decades of strategy, business development, and network access from VISUS Health IT and board roles in the Ruhr health-economy association MedEcon Ruhr. Kleber provides technical due-diligence depth in interoperability, software architecture, and medical-device quality management. All investment decisions appear to flow through the four-person team, with no external investment committee disclosed.

Meerkat sits at the intersection of the Ruhr region's health-economy cluster and the Bochum Gesundheitscampus, where several portfolio companies are based. The principals remain active in industry networks through MedEcon Ruhr, the Gesundheitscampus expert advisory board, and Kleber's standard-committee work in DICOM and IHE. The firm openly solicits pitch decks at a dedicated email address and emphasizes a first informal meeting to gauge founder-investor fit.

No. Meerkat is structured as a holding company (Meerkat Holding) that invests its own balance-sheet capital rather than raising discretionary funds from limited partners. This eliminates the fixed investment-period and exit-timeline constraints of a traditional venture fund and allows the firm to support companies over longer hold periods. The firm does not disclose the size of its balance sheet.

The firm focuses on early-stage companies (Frühphase) with software-driven healthcare models — what it terms 'Smart Health.' Portfolio companies range from pre-revenue devices and diagnostics to telehealth platforms already in clinical use. The mandate spans digital therapeutics (Herodikos, Breathment), AI-assisted diagnostics (TimeTeller, Luma Life), medical robotics and devices (ATLAS, Meliodays, ichó), remote care infrastructure (roclub, the telemedicine consortium), and point-of-care testing (Detechgene).

The firm provides active operational support in market access, technology development, financing including M&A, and corporate social responsibility strategy. Amelie Holstein, a trained CSR ambassador for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, leads the CSR advisory practice, while Kleber contributes quality-management and regulatory expertise for medical-device software. The firm also offers individual mentoring and coaching to founders.

The portfolio is concentrated in Germany, with a cluster of companies in North Rhine-Westphalia's health-economy corridor. At least one portfolio company, QuantActions, originated as a spin-off from the University of Zürich in Switzerland. The firm's website and portfolio suggest no active investments outside German-speaking Europe.

The portfolio page lists separate vehicles — 5P Future of Health and Capacura — that may represent parallel investment activities or co-branded efforts, but the firm does not publicly describe a formal co-investment or syndication model. Its balance-sheet approach typically allows it to lead rounds without assembling an external syndicate.