From EIC Accelerator Grant to Thin Sales: Kinepict's Angiography

Every angiogram, the X-ray film doctors use to see inside blood vessels, is built from a series of frames, and the way those frames are processed has barely changed in forty years. Digital subtraction angiography takes a "mask" frame without contrast agent and subtracts it from each of the others, one frame at a time. Two physicists at Semmelweis University in Budapest, Szabolcs Osváth and Krisztián Szigeti, instead computed the statistical variance of every pixel across the whole series, which separates the moving contrast agent from noise. They called it Digital Variance Angiography (DVA), and their company, Kinepict Health Kft., sells it as the Kinepict Medical Imaging Tool (KMIT), a software add-on to existing angiography suites, according to Semmelweis University and the company's website.

The European Commission's list of winners of the 7 October 2020 EIC Accelerator pilot cut-off names Kinepict Health Kft. of Budakeszi, alone, for KMIT-ACC with blended finance. CORDIS records an EU grant of €1,527,421.88 towards a total cost of €2,182,031.25, from 1 March 2021 to 31 August 2023. Three years after the project closed, the science has largely held up, but the company has not: its filed accounts show net sales of HUF 15.4 million in 2025 and seven employees on average.

Where Kinepict Stands Now

Kinepict Health is an operating company with no insolvency, liquidation or enforcement proceedings on record, according to CompanyWall and Nemzeti Cégtár. It has filed accounts for 2025. Its net sales were HUF 15,371,000 in 2025, according to Opten, Nemzeti Cégtár and PartnerControl, up from HUF 7,652,000 in 2024, according to Ceginformacio.hu. PartnerControl and Ceginformacio.hu put the workforce at six people in 2026.

The company sells directly only in Hungary and through distributors elsewhere, according to a Kinepict case study by Osváth dated 21 March 2025 and hosted on a Pázmány Péter Catholic University course page. Its distributor page lists AngioPro GmbH for 17 European countries, DVA IntelTech for Romania and Gama Medikal for Turkey. Its partners page now invites "licensing, integration or strategic transaction discussions" and names "potential acquirers" among the parties it wants to hear from. The careers page says it is not hiring.

The Technology: Using the Whole X-Ray Series

Because DVA extracts more signal from the same frames, the image quality it gains can be traded for lower radiation or less iodinated contrast agent, which can damage the kidneys. The software takes the unsubtracted image series from the angiography system over the hospital network and returns DVA images to the operating-room monitor, so it works with existing Siemens, GE and Philips equipment rather than replacing it, according to the March 2025 presentation and Semmelweis University. The method is protected by US patent US9200947B2 (2015) and European patent EP2628146B1 (2017), the presentation says.

The US Food and Drug Administration cleared KMIT under the 510(k) procedure in March 2020, according to the company's announcement, and cleared version 4.0, which adds an option to reduce X-ray dose, on 10 September 2021 (K202056). In 2021 Kinepict said it had a US patent and FDA clearance but that the Covid-19 pandemic had set back its US plans, according to Magyar Hírlap. The 2025 presentation gives an Atlanta address, but no US customer has been announced.

What KMIT-ACC Promised, and What CORDIS Shows

The proposal had four objectives: clinical validation for new indications, a network of reference laboratories, software and hardware optimisation "to reach TRL 9 level", and baseline commercial activities. It promised "3-10 times higher signal-to-noise ratio" and a dose management tool to cut X-ray and contrast doses "at least by 75% and 50%, respectively", according to CORDIS.

The final report says the clinical aims were "fully achieved": better image quality in prostatic artery embolisation and liver chemoembolisation, verified radiation reduction in lower-limb angiography in a randomised controlled trial, and a contrast reduction trial in carotid angiography. It reports five peer-reviewed papers, a reference site network and a business plan. It also says the software "reached TRL 8", one level short of the TRL 9 in the objective. In March 2023 the company's website listed 13 user sites: five in Germany, five in Hungary, two in Austria and one in Italy.

1. Clinical validation for new indicationsDeliveredEmbolisation and lower-limb studies published; the 2023 randomised trial credits grant 968430.
2. Reference laboratory networkDelivered13 sites in four countries listed in March 2023.
3. TRL 9PartlyThe final report says TRL 8.
4. At least 75% less X-ray doseNot achievedThe randomised trial measured 61% less DSA-related and 38% less total dose.
5. 50% less contrast, randomised trialNot reportedTrial NCT04792255 has posted no results; its record was last updated in March 2023.
6. VC round in 2024, 40 jobs by 2028Not achievedNo round announced; staff fell to 7 in 2025.

The dose numbers deserve care. The randomised trial of 114 patients, published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Development and Disease in 2023, found that low-dose DVA cut the median radiation from the subtraction runs by 61% and the total dose of the procedure by 38%, without loss of image quality. Eight of its authors were Kinepict employees, the paper discloses. An independent group at the University of Freiburg reported in Scientific Reports in July 2025 that DVA-based low-dose protocols cut the dose by 62.0% in the pelvic region, 53.8% in the thigh and knee arteries and 59.4% below the knee across 432 interventions, according to AuntMinnie and EMJ, which also notes that the low-dose group had only 62 patients. Neither study reached the 75% in the EIC objective, while the company's website still advertises "70% X-ray reduction".

The contrast trial in carotid stenting, sponsored by Kinepict with Semmelweis University and Bács-Kiskun County Teaching Hospital, was due to finish at the end of 2023, according to ClinicalTrials.gov. Its status is listed as unknown and no results have been posted.

What Kinepict Has Achieved Since the Award

Clinically, a fair amount. The March 2025 presentation lists 10 completed and 3 ongoing clinical studies, more than 600 enrolled patients, 12 peer-reviewed papers and more than 15,000 patients examined with the software, up from "10,000+" on the 2023 website. It lists "MDD" and "MDR (Q4/24)" next to its claims without further detail; the current partners page calls the product CE-marked. Whether an MDR certificate has been issued could not be verified. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences rated the company an excellent research site from 22 May 2024 to 30 June 2029, the presentation says.

Commercially, much less. Net sales of HUF 7.65 million in 2024 and HUF 15.4 million in 2025 are small next to the CORDIS report's forecast of "accumulated revenue and net profit of €36m and €30m by 2028". The company's funding page names Aquincum Inkubátor and FastVentures as strategic investors; Aquincum Inkubátor Zrt. is a registered owner of the parent company, Kinepict Kft., according to CompanyWall. The 2025 presentation puts the money raised at "2.6 M" and grants at "1.4 M" without dates. No priced funding round has been announced since the award.

The Money

Kinepict Health lost HUF 172.4 million in 2023, HUF 166.4 million in 2024 and HUF 134.7 million in 2025, according to the filed accounts summarised by CompanyWall; Nemzeti Cégtár puts the 2025 loss in the HUF 100 to 200 million band. Equity was HUF 182.5 million at the end of 2025, up from HUF 178.2 million a year earlier despite the loss, which means about HUF 139 million of new equity went in during 2025. Where it came from is not shown in the summaries consulted. The parent company's equity rose from HUF 725.8 million to HUF 986.5 million in the same year, CompanyWall shows.

The EIC award was blended finance. Szigeti explained in 2021 that the equity part was conditional: if Kinepict found an investor, the European Investment Bank would add the same amount, "up to a maximum of €3.4 million", and finding a professional healthcare investor was the company's "main goal", he told Magyar Hírlap (translated). Kinepict does not appear in any of the 16 pages of the EIC Fund's list of invested companies, checked on 18 October 2026. On the public record, the equity was never invested.

Kinepict also drew on Hungarian public money: a START_UP_13 incubation grant of HUF 79,991,374 at 85% funding for clinical validation to October 2017, and a 2021 "Gyorsítósáv" grant (2020-1.1.5-GYORSÍTÓSÁV-2021-00018) closed in January 2023, according to an archived funding page; the 2023 trial paper also lists the Gyorsítósáv grant. Semmelweis University quoted Szigeti in 2021 saying Kinepict was "one of the 32 winning projects" of its round; the EIC's own announcement, reprinted on that archived page, spoke of 38 start-ups and SMEs.

Why Europe Should Care

The EU's SAMIRA action plan, adopted in February 2021 as part of Europe's Beating Cancer Plan, makes "improving radiation quality and safety in medicine" one of its three pillars, alongside innovation in medical radiation technology. A software add-on that lowers dose on angiography machines hospitals already own fits that agenda. Whether it reaches many hospitals now depends on partners: Kinepict's partners page names imaging companies, device manufacturers and potential acquirers among the parties it wants to talk to.

The Verdict

Kinepict has not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records, company statements, clinical publications and EU project data, linked throughout.