Vitestro Raises $70 Million to Bring Its Blood-Drawing Robot Aletta to US Hospitals After 10,000 Successful Procedures in Europe

A robot just drew blood from a patient in Amsterdam. No nurse. No phlebotomist. Just a machine that used ultrasound to find the vein, inserted the needle, collected the sample, and applied a bandage—all in under two minutes. The device is called Aletta, and the Dutch company behind it, Vitestro, just raised $70 million in Series B funding to bring it to the United States.

The March 10 funding round was led by new strategic investors including Labcorp Venture Fund, Mayo Clinic, and Sutter Health, alongside financial backers InterVest, MGFO, PGGM, Puma Venture Capital, and ROM Utrecht. The round brings Vitestro’s total funding past $90 million since its founding in 2017.

The Technology Behind the Needle

Aletta—named to foster a human connection between patients and the machine—combines AI-based Doppler ultrasound, multimodal imaging, and precision robotics into a single autonomous system. A phlebotomy procedure, which is the medical term for drawing blood from a vein, typically requires a trained technician to find a suitable vein, insert a needle, fill collection tubes, and dress the puncture site. Aletta performs every one of those steps without human hands.

The patient sits down and positions their arm on a guided rest. Aletta’s imaging system maps the veins beneath the skin using ultrasound—the same sound-wave technology used in pregnancy scans—then selects the optimal puncture site. A robotic arm inserts the needle, manages tube changes for multiple samples, and applies a bandage when finished. Average procedure time: approximately one minute and 49 seconds.

10,000 Patients and Counting

Vitestro’s claims are backed by its ADOPT clinical trial—the largest autonomous blood draw study ever conducted—which enrolled more than 10,000 patients across multiple Dutch hospitals. The results: a 95% first-stick success rate, zero serious or moderate adverse events, and mild adverse events in just 1.3% of procedures. Perhaps most telling, 98% of patients said they would use Aletta again, and 85% rated the pain as equal to or less than a traditional manual blood draw.

Aletta received its CE marking—the European equivalent of FDA approval—in August 2024 and is now commercially operational at hospitals including OLVG Lab in Amsterdam, Amsterdam UMC, and St. Antonius Hospital. Odense University Hospital in Denmark ordered three devices for Aletta’s first international deployment. One trained supervisor can manage up to three machines simultaneously, restocking supplies and assisting patients as needed.

The US Push and the Money Behind It

The $70 million round is explicitly aimed at the American market. On March 19, 2025, Northwestern Medicine—one of the largest academic medical systems in the United States—signed a multi-year collaboration with Vitestro to participate in a multicenter clinical trial. That trial will generate the clinical evidence Vitestro needs to pursue FDA approval through the De Novo regulatory pathway, a classification route the FDA uses for novel medical devices that have no existing equivalent on the market.

Toon Overbeeke, Vitestro’s CEO and co-founder, said the funding reflects strong conviction in autonomous robotic venous access. The investor list reads like a who’s-who of American healthcare infrastructure: Labcorp processes hundreds of millions of lab tests annually, Mayo Clinic is routinely ranked among the top hospitals in the world, and Sutter Health operates 24 hospitals across Northern California.

The Bigger Picture for Healthcare Robotics

Vitestro is entering a rapidly expanding market. The global medical robotics industry is projected to grow from $18.3 billion in 2026 to $72.5 billion by 2035, according to Precedence Research, driven by workforce shortages, rising procedure volumes, and advances in AI-guided systems. While surgical robots like Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci platform dominate the revenue share today—with more than 8,000 units installed and 12 million procedures performed globally—diagnostic automation represents a largely untapped segment.

Phlebotomy is one of the most common medical procedures in the world, and hospitals are struggling to staff it. Aletta’s model—one supervisor for three machines—directly addresses that labor gap while maintaining clinical precision. For now, Vitestro is the only company with a CE-marked autonomous robotic phlebotomy device on the market, giving it a meaningful first-mover advantage as the race for FDA clearance begins.

What to Watch

Federal Reserve / Economic Calendar: A pivotal week for labor market data. The March nonfarm payrolls report drops Friday, April 3—but US equity and bond markets will be closed for Good Friday, meaning no real-time market reaction and maximum uncertainty heading into Q2. The ISM Manufacturing PMI arrives Wednesday, April 1, with economists expecting a reading near 51.8, down slightly from February’s 52.4.

Earnings: Nike (NKE) reports Q3 fiscal 2026 results on Tuesday, March 31. Wall Street expects revenue of $11.24 billion and earnings per share of $0.28. The report will be closely watched for signals on consumer spending trends and inventory management under CEO Elliott Hill‘s turnaround plan.

Broader Market: The iShares U.S. Medical Devices ETF (IHI) is trading near the bottom of its 52-week range at $54.87, well below its high of $64.71. The pullback comes even as the global medical device market is forecast to grow at 5.9% annually through 2035—a disconnect that has value-oriented investors watching the healthcare robotics and medical technology sector closely.