Nextkidney's EIC Accelerator Shrinks Dialysis to Hand Luggage

More than 5 million people worldwide have end-stage renal disease, and most of them travel to a clinic three times a week to be dialysed. Home haemodialysis would avoid that, but fewer than 2% of patients use it, because the machines are bulky and hard to set up, according to the CORDIS summary of Nextkidney's EIC project. The company, founded in the Netherlands in 2014, has built the Neokidney: a 10 kilogram device that uses a patented sorbent to recycle its dialysis fluid, cutting the water needed per session from 45 litres to 5, and that needs no special plumbing or electrical grounding.

The EIC Accelerator selected the project, PORTADIALYS, at its October 2024 cut-off for blended finance, and CORDIS records a grant of €2,499,810.11 from July 2025 to June 2027. The project claims a 40% reduction in mortality for patients and annual cost savings of up to 43% per patient, from €92,000 to €53,000.

Five hundred treatments, no home study yet

The clinical path has been unusually visible. First-in-human treatments were done in Singapore and France in July 2024. In January 2026 European trials began in four centres, the university hospitals of Utrecht and Leiden, Brussels and Caen, and by September 2026 the company reported that more than 500 treatments had been performed successfully by dialysis nurses in the Netherlands, Belgium and France, and that it was ready to move to the in-home study. Its own pages give both 25 and 29 as the number of patients in those European trials.

The study at UMC Utrecht, run with the Dutch Kidney Foundation, is to involve around fifty patients who will also use the device at home, with results expected in 2027 and an application for CE marking planned part way through. Until then the website carries the explicit disclaimer: not FDA approved, not CE-marked, not for sale.

Why the fluid matters

The engineering trick is the sorbent. Conventional haemodialysis flushes fresh dialysate past the blood and discards it, which is why a session needs tens of litres and a water connection. The Neokidney cleans and reuses its fluid, so five litres is enough, which is what makes a 10 kilogram portable machine possible. What the company calls cardiac floating technology removes the need for electrical grounding, which the project says allows use in remote areas and disaster zones. Remote monitoring lets clinicians see patient data without a hospital visit.

The business model is the standard device one: sell the machine, then the consumables, entering Europe and the US first. The project puts the global dialysis market at €82 billion in 2022, the home segment at €7 billion by 2035, and projects €650 million of annual sales by 2035.

1. Treatments in clinical centresDoneMore than 500 by September 2026, in four centres, as reported by the company.
2. Use at home by patientsStartingIn-home study described as the next step; UMC Utrecht study results due 2027.
3. CE markingNot grantedApplication planned mid-study; website states the device is not CE-marked.
4. €39M of equity for launchNot raised€15M of EIC Fund equity was requested; a crowdfunding round opens in November 2026.

A long cap table and a crowdfunding round

Nextkidney's funding reflects a device that has taken twelve years: insurers and the Dutch Kidney Foundation early, a €22.6 million Series B in December 2023, a €3 million government grant in July 2024 to bring sorbent production in house, and in July 2025 the EIC Accelerator award together with European Investment Bank money, which the company puts at €17.5 million combined. It says €40.1 million has come in since its last crowdfunding round.

What it does not have is the €39 million of equity its EIC application assumed, including €15 million from the EIC Fund, and no such investment has been announced. Instead the company is opening a retail crowdfunding round on Invesdor from 10 November 2026, with a minimum ticket of €275, describing it as "one last chance to invest before its commercial launch". For a medical device still awaiting certification, that is a notable way to finance the final stretch.

Dialysis capacity is a European health system problem

The argument the company makes to health systems is about staff and money rather than patient comfort: fewer clinic sessions means less pressure on scarce dialysis nurses and chairs, and the project's claimed saving per patient per year is large. That is why Dutch insurers are on its partner list and why the EU, the Dutch economy ministry and the province of North Brabant have all put money in. If the home study works, the EIC grant will have paid for the last part of a public and private effort that began in 2014.