Undisclosed · Growth/Late · Healthtech · Ljubljana, Slovenia
GenePlanet’s next-generation sequencing laboratory in Zagreb. Image: GenePlanet.
Ljubljana-based GenePlanet, a genomics and laboratory platform, has secured an undisclosed strategic growth investment from Lauxera Capital Partners. Existing investor BlackPeak Capital partially sold its position but retained a meaningful shareholding, while founder Marko Bitenc and other minority shareholders remain involved. The transaction adds a specialist healthtech investor as GenePlanet expands its diagnostic portfolio and international footprint.
The announcement does not disclose the transaction value or split between new capital and BlackPeak’s partial secondary sale. The new capital structure is intended to support organic growth, further acquisitions and entry into additional genetic-testing markets.
Scaling a laboratory platform across regulated markets
GenePlanet provides clinical, research and preventive genetic testing, alongside end-to-end next-generation sequencing services for healthcare and research partners. Its central laboratory is in Zagreb, with additional hubs in Sweden and Hungary. The company says it expanded from 24 markets in 2023 to more than 50 by the time of Lauxera’s investment, while integrating four bolt-on acquisitions.
That expansion is more than a sales exercise. Entering a new diagnostics market can require laboratory capacity, local licences, validated workflows, clinical relationships and reimbursement access. Acquisitions can add several of those pieces faster than building them independently, but the commercial value depends on integrating laboratories and acquired products into one reliable operating system. Turnaround times, quality controls and data handling have to remain consistent as the network grows.
Lauxera’s role is tied to that execution. GenePlanet says the investor brings diagnostics expertise and access to Western European and US markets. The company plans to broaden its proprietary portfolio into oncology and rare-disease panels while accelerating regulatory approvals and reimbursement pathways. Those are concrete expansion levers, but also dependencies: a product does not become commercially useful in a new market until clinicians, regulators and payers can adopt it.
A later-stage investor joins after three years of expansion
BlackPeak led GenePlanet’s €20m Series B in 2023, when the company operated in 24 countries and relied on a single centralised laboratory hub. The partial exit now gives that investor some liquidity without ending its involvement. For GenePlanet, the handover adds a later-stage specialist while preserving continuity with the shareholder that backed the previous expansion cycle.
The next test is whether the platform can keep compounding through both organic growth and bolt-on acquisitions. The 50-plus-market footprint and four completed deals show reach; the harder proof will be whether new oncology and rare-disease products can move through approval and reimbursement, and whether acquired laboratories improve access without fragmenting delivery.
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United Ventures, Moneyfarm, Giovanni Daprà and Paolo Gesess, hosted on EUVC · 23 July 2026. The article argues that M&A becomes a useful scale-up lever only after the core business is solid, a direct frame for GenePlanet’s four completed acquisitions and plan for further bolt-ons.
Sources checked:
GenePlanet · Lauxera Capital Partners · GenePlanet 2023 Series B · GenePlanet HQ evidence · GenePlanet press centre · Tech.eu Funding Explorer
Image: GenePlanet, via the company press centre.
