Calm/Storm Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
Calm/Storm Ventures is a Vienna-based boutique venture capital firm and founder network that invests exclusively in purpose-driven founders "changing our life, health and wellbeing for the better." The firm focuses squarely on HealthTech, spanning "digital health" and "well-being," prevention and care, across both B2B and B2C business models. Its stated aim is to generate impact and financial returns together, and it has been named the #1 (most-active) early-stage HealthTech investor in Europe by Sifted for multiple consecutive years (2022, 2023, 2024). The portfolio deliberately spans a wide range of health sub-verticals: fertility, AI-enabled clinical infrastructure, mental health, clinical decision support, insurtech, chronic disease management, SaaS tools for healthcare professionals, and taboo health topics that are broadly underserved.
Sector Focus
The firm's core focus is HealthTech / digital health, split internally into "Health Frontend" (patient-facing solutions that directly improve users' lives) and "Health Backend" (software infrastructure supporting healthcare professionals), plus dedicated FemTech and AI tags. Beyond healthcare, Calm/Storm also backs a smaller set of sector-agnostic companies founded by Austrian entrepreneurs (fintech, proptech, climate, edtech, consumer apps), reflecting its roots as a founder-first fund built in Vienna.
Stage Focus
Calm/Storm is an explicitly super-early-stage investor. The firm says it wants "to join your journey as early as we can," typically investing in a company's first fundraising round — even before a final co-founder team or pitch deck exists. External trackers (Vestbee) describe its stage focus as Seed, Late Seed, and Early Growth, with typical check sizes ranging from roughly €25K up to €5M+. Its most recently announced €30M fund is checking €50,000–€300,000 into early-stage HealthTech startups.
Check Size
Typical investment range: roughly €25K–€5M+, with the current (2025) €30M fund writing initial checks in the €50K–€300K band and reserving capital for follow-ons. The firm has already deployed into 25 companies from that fund.
Lead Tendency
Available evidence points to Calm/Storm frequently co-investing and following alongside other funds and angels rather than always leading: it invested in Apylon's pre-seed alongside byFounders and Founders; in Circle Health's €9M seed alongside Atlantic Labs, CRB HealthTech and K Fund; and in Oska Health's €11M seed, co-led by Capricorn Partners and Swiss Health Ventures. It also appears as a smaller syndicate participant in Linq's $1.1M pre-seed (with FORM and aescension). This is consistent with a fund whose typical check ($50K-$300K) is often too small to anchor a round on its own.
Recent Activity
The fund closed a new €30M vehicle in 2025 and has already invested in 25 companies from it as of the announcement. Most recently, in February 2026, Calm/Storm invested in Circle Health's €9M seed round. It also invested in Oska Health's €11M seed round and Apylon's €2M pre-seed round. Portfolio company Nelly Solutions raised a $51M Series B (January 2025) led by Cathay Innovation and Notion Capital, alongside b2venture and Lakestar — a strong signal of the firm's earliest bets scaling into large later-stage rounds. In April 2025 the firm published a two-year retrospective noting its portfolio had collectively raised close to €80M in follow-on capital, roughly 15x its own invested capital.
Portfolio Highlights
Calm/Storm describes itself as having "built the most prominent digital health portfolio in Europe," with more than 75 (in practice closer to 90 tracked) portfolio companies. Standouts include Nelly Solutions (medical practice billing, $51M Series B), Lindus Health (full-stack clinical trials platform), Thymia (objective mental health measurement), Upheal (AI assistant for healing professionals), Fertifa (reproductive healthcare benefits), Inne (women's hormonal health), The Lowdown (contraception access), and ThinkSono (AutoDVT blood-clot detection). Several portfolio companies are internally tagged "Exit" on the firm's site, including Timeular, Coinpanion, Friday Finance, Clay, Hi.health, and Mindstep, indicating realized outcomes in the book.
Team
Calm/Storm frames itself as "a fund built by founders for founders," staffed by former entrepreneurs rather than career investment bankers:
- Lucanus Polagnoli, Founding Partner — the firm's most visible public voice, frequently quoted on European HealthTech capital markets (Fundview, Focus.de, Digitale Welt, trendreport.de) and co-host of the firm's EUVC Podcast appearance.
- Stephanie Urbanski, Managing Partner — co-appeared with Polagnoli on the EUVC Podcast discussing "Digital Health, Not Hype."
- Johannes Blaschke, Partner
- Ekaterina Gianelli, Venture Partner
- Paul Varga, Venture Partner (also a Co-Founder of Playbrush, listed among the firm's Supporting Partners)
- Philippa Allen, Investment Manager
- Michela Grimaldi, Communications Manager
- Nina Kasmaei-Gatzmaga, Founders Associate
- Matheus Verweijen, Junior Finance Manager
The firm also maintains a large bench of "Supporting Partners" (operator-investors including the Co-Founders of Storebox, Tractive, and Runtastic), an Advisory Board chaired by Johann "Hansi" Hansmann and Regina Hodits, and a long list of alumni analysts — consistent with a Vienna-based fund that runs a structured internship/analyst pipeline.
Decision Process
The firm operates as a partnership (Founding Partner, Managing Partner, Partner and Venture Partner titles all appear active), rather than a solo-GP or formal investment-committee structure. Its intake process is notably low-friction: founders can "apply through our website" without a finished team or deck.
Founder Preferences
Calm/Storm explicitly seeks "purpose driven founders" building in health, life, and wellbeing, including founders tackling taboo or underserved topics (sexual health, chronic constipation, revenge-porn protection). Diversity is a stated, measured commitment: more than 50% of the firm's own team and board, and more than 50% of its portfolio founders, come from underrepresented groups. The firm also runs a dedicated podcast series (~30% of portfolio founders identify as non-male) and publishes an annual "Digital Health Compass" book/report plus a FemTech Report.
Geographic Focus
Headquartered in Vienna, Austria, with a portfolio concentrated in Europe (UK, Germany, Austria, and wider EU), and a stated openness to sector-agnostic bets specifically from Austrian founders.