Value Creation Since Seed
In the 21 months since closing the seed round (September 2024), Legit.Health has built the platform required for accelerated growth: a commercial team, new tier-1 customer logos, additional regulatory certifications, scientific output, captured grants, and operational maturity. Top-line revenue undershot the optimistic 2024 budget, but every foundational asset that drives the next phase is now in place.
The honest acknowledgement
The 2024 business plan projected €789K revenue for 2024. Actual: €405K (operating). The 2025 budget projected revenue acceleration; actual was €604K. Top-line was below the optimistic plan in both years.
What we learned: B2B clinical AI sales cycles are 6-12 months for hospital/insurance and 9-12 months per study for pharma. The 2024 plan assumed faster cycles. Deals are not lost, they are in motion and closing at higher TCV than originally planned as multi-year framework agreements replace single-study contracts.
What did move forward (the value created)
1. Senior team built and renewed
At the seed round (2024), the team was 19 (17 on payroll + 2 co-founders without payroll, Gerardo CTO and Antonio CMO), with a founder-dependent sales motion. Today it stands at 27 (25 on payroll + 2 co-founders): +8 net (+42%), built while renewing the senior layer across Sales, Quality/Regulatory and Legal.
Senior renewal moment (Mar 2025 + Mar/Apr 2026)
Three of the four senior non-founder roles were renewed in coordinated moves: Sales Director (Giuseppe), Quality Manager (Saray) and Legal Director (Alejandra), plus the first international senior hire (Chris McKee in UK).
Additional new hires post-seed (4 specialists + 1 internal promotion)
In Mar 2025 we renewed two senior functions (Sales + Quality) within a single week, a coordinated management execution rather than opportunistic hiring. Legal (Mar 2026) and UK Sales (Chris McKee, Apr 2026) followed, showing the renewal is still active, not a one-off event.
See the Key Senior Team page for detailed profiles of the 6 senior non-founders (Ignacio + Alba + Giuseppe + Saray + Alejandra + Chris). :::
Net result: from a founder-dependent sales motion to a structured 6-person commercial team + 2-person CS team, with renewed senior leadership across Sales, Quality/Regulatory, and Legal. This is what allowed billings to grow +145% YoY even with the longer-than-planned sales cycles.
2. New tier-1 customer logos won
3. New certifications (regulatory + security)
Why ENS Alto matters strategically: Spanish public health administrations (SESPA, SERMAS, CCAA health systems) cannot legally contract a digital health solution without ENS Alto certification. Most early-stage healthtech startups don't have it because the certification process is intense (Spanish Centro Criptológico Nacional audit, full information security management system). Having it pre-Series A unlocks immediately a procurement channel that competitors cannot access.
4. Awards & external validation since seed
Five external recognitions awarded to Legit.Health in the post-seed period, each from a distinct institutional context: a global startup competition won, a sectoral health award, a national innovation ranking, an export-promotion impact award, and a Basque innovation recognition.
The post-seed awards each come from a different institutional source: Startup World Cup / Pegasus Tech Ventures (global VC competition, investor signal), ICEX/Red.es (export + digital agency, commercial signal), Lideremos (private health-sector network, sectoral signal), ENISA + Foro ADR (national innovation finance ecosystem, innovation signal), and ZITEK (Basque entrepreneurship ecosystem, regional signal). Five different validators in five different contexts = breadth of external endorsement, not a single ecosystem clapping for itself.
5. New scientific publications + active pipeline
Since seed close, 5 new peer-reviewed papers published (surface area measurement 2026, ALADIN 2026, AGPPGA 2026, APASI 2025, Head & Neck 2025), bringing the total to 9. On top of that, 7 additional papers are in active pipeline (submission and drafting stages).
Pipeline forecast: 7 additional publications by EoY 2027
| Status | Count | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| 🔵 Under review | 3 | GPP severity device · DIQA cross-domain · Melanoma early detection |
| ✏️ Drafting | 4 | DDI dataset limitations · AWOSI (Wound) · AVASI (Vitiligo) · Real-world Sanitas elderly homes |
| Total forthcoming | 7 | Publishing 2026-2027 |
Cumulative scientific output trajectory:
- At seed close (September 2024): 4 papers published
- Today (June 2026): 9 papers published (+5 since seed)
- Forecast EoY 2026: 10-11 papers (GPP severity device pending acceptance, plus 1 from under review)
- Forecast EoY 2027: ~16 papers (full pipeline executed)
For a healthtech company at this stage, adding 5 peer-reviewed publications since the seed round (9 published in total) is exceptional output. Each paper validates a distinct algorithm + pathology, unlocking a new pharma trial channel and a new use case for hospitals/insurance. The pipeline is the clinical evidence engine that competitors cannot replicate in less than 3-5 years of catch-up investment.
See full pipeline detail in Product → Clinical Evidence.
6. Non-dilutive capital captured since seed
| Grant | Institution | Amount | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zabaldu 2024 | Gobierno Vasco / SPRI | €23,614 | ✅ Captured |
| Zabaldu 2025 | Gobierno Vasco / SPRI | €48,005 | ✅ Captured |
| EPIC-X 2026 | EIC / EU | €60,000 | ✅ Captured |
| ICEX Next 2025 | ICEX | €24,000 | ✅ Captured |
| Internacionalización Germany | DFB | €50,905 | ✅ Captured |
| Internacionalización UK | DFB | €37,360 | ✅ Captured |
| Internacionalización US | DFB | €46,253 | ✅ Captured |
| Red.es RedIA Salud (VALIDERMIA) | Red.es | €818,748 | ⏳ Submitted, resolution Sept 2026 |
| CDTI Misiones 2026 (dIAna) | CDTI (Almirall consortium) | €758,120 | ⏳ Submitted 12/06/2026, in evaluation |
| Fast Track Innobideak 2026 (aEASI) | SPRI Gobierno Vasco | €250,000 | ⏳ Submitted 30/04/2026, resolution by 31/10/2026 |
| Plan 2i 2026 (VALIDERMIA) | DFB | €97,008 | ⏳ Submitted, resolution Sept 2026 |
| Subtotal captured | €290K+ | ||
| Subtotal pending | ~€1.9M |
Why this matters for the investor pushback: while ARR was growing 2x, the team was also raising €290K of non-dilutive capital, plus another ~€1.9M pending resolution (Red.es RedIA Salud €819K, CDTI Misiones dIAna €758K, Fast Track Innobideak aEASI €250K, Plan 2i 2026 €97K). That's effectively another seed round in expected non-dilutive capital since September 2024. Most early-stage operators can't sustain commercial growth AND grant capture at this volume.
7. Operational maturity built
8. Team headcount evolution
| Metric | Seed round (2024) | Today (2026) | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employees on payroll | 17 | 25 | +8 |
| Co-founders (Gerardo, Antonio · non-payroll) | +2 | +2 | - |
| Total effective team | 19 | 27 | +8 |
The team grew from 19 to 27 (+8, +42%) while renewing the senior layer: upgraded leadership in Sales (Giuseppe), Quality/Regulatory (Saray) and Legal (Alejandra), plus the UK Sales Director (Chris McKee) opening international presence.
The capital-efficiency reading: Legit.Health grew the team +42% while renewing three senior function leads simultaneously and keeping actual personnel and external-services costs below the 2024-2025 budget (functions brought in-house instead of outsourced at consultant rates), with the growth funded largely non-dilutively. That's capability per euro, and for a Series A investor evaluating burn multiple and capital efficiency it is a measurable positive signal.
9. Capital efficiency: internal execution vs outsourcing
A core principle of the post-seed period: build internal capability, don't rent it. Functions that early-stage startups typically outsource at high markup were brought in-house at senior level, preserving runway while creating durable capability.
Cost discipline: spent less than budgeted
The combined effect of internal execution + senior renewal produced actual costs below budget in 2025:
- 2025 budget for personnel + external services: planned for higher spend
- 2025 actuals: below plan, primarily because functions were brought in-house instead of outsourced at consultant rates
- Result: same operational capability at lower euros, extending runway and improving capital efficiency
A frequent investor objection to bridge rounds is: "if you spent the seed efficiently, why do you need more capital?" The answer here is specific: the bridge funds acceleration (commercial expansion + FDA + clinical validation US), not maintenance. The historical record of spending discipline (below budget, in-house over outsourced, senior renewal funded largely non-dilutively) is the proof that the bridge euros will be used as efficiently as the seed euros. The internal-execution pattern is the credibility marker.
10. The compounding effect (now visible)
The combination of all of the above is what produces the ARR doubling that VCs ask for as a metric. None of this is one-off; each asset compounds:
The reframe
The question is not "did revenue hit the 2024 business plan?" Revenue didn't, because the plan assumed faster sales cycles than B2B clinical AI actually allows.
The question is: "Is the company in a materially stronger position than 21 months ago, with a credible path to €1M ARR?"
The answer is unambiguously yes. ARR doubled. Commercial muscle built. New regulatory jurisdictions captured. 9 new tier-1 logos including ICON, Lux Med BUPA, SESPA, Sagimet, Novartis, Pierre Fabre, CUF, CHU Rennes, plus J&J account expansion (pilot scaling to a €685K Phase 3 programme) and Teladoc (Adeslas). €290K+ non-dilutive captured. 5 new peer-reviewed papers. FDA pathway opened.
The bridge round funds the conversion of all this latent value into the €1M ARR that unlocks Series A.
See also
- Key Senior Team: detailed profiles of the 6 senior non-founders (Ignacio, Alba, Giuseppe, Saray, Alejandra, Chris)
- Bridge Thesis: why a bridge round, what it unlocks
- Path to €1M ARR: from current state to €1M ARR
- ARR & Revenue Mix: foundational metrics
- Funding: full capital raised + grant detail