The firm was founded in late 2019 by Lucanus Polagnoli (ex-Speedinvest) and Michael Ströck, with strong backgrounds in tech entrepreneurship and venture capital. 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.
Calm/Storm has built one of Europe’s most prominent healthtech portfolios with over 75 companies, focusing on areas often overlooked or considered taboo, such as infertility, sexual wellness, mental health, and chronic conditions. The fund is proud that nearly half of its portfolio companies have diverse teams, with about one-third of CEOs not identifying as male, reflecting its commitment to diversity and equitable opportunity in health innovation.
Calm/Storm Ventures looks for founders who share this vision, often investing very early with checks from €50,000 to €300,000, prioritising the fit between founder and market over how polished the product already is.
What sets Calm/Storm apart is its intimate, founder-focused style. Created by founders for founders, it fosters a close-knit network where entrepreneurs receive mentorship and access to a strong ecosystem tuned to the unique challenges of healthtech.
Unlike big funds chasing late-stage deals, Calm/Storm stays lean and hands-on, offering operational support and leveraging a deep European healthcare network. Its investors are essentially entrepreneurs themselves, including leaders from startups like Qunomedical and Runtastic, which helps build a true community around the fund.
Looking ahead, the fund plans to invest between 30 and 40 times, not only across Europe but also growing its reach into the U.S. Beyond healthtech, it’s branching into connected themes like climate and nutrition tech.
Calm/Storm intends to expand physically by setting up offices in innovation hotspots such as Berlin and Copenhagen. Building strong ties with hospitals, universities, and healthcare players is key to creating innovation pipelines and scaling promising startups.
