
Vision: To ensure that fewer patients around the world die from cirrhosis
Doctors need help detecting liver disease patients in time so they don't die from cirrhosis. This is the goal of the founders of Evido Health, a company based on research from the University of Southern Denmark and Odense University Hospital.
In 2024, Evido started making money. This is a huge milestone for a medtech startup. The vast majority of healthcare startups fail within the first five years.
The challenge is that it takes time to sort out the legalities that need to be in place for a startup producing medtech devices. Evido has received the key approvals, including the CE approval, which came in 2024. The CE approval is what allows the startup to sell it's software.
'All startups dream of making money to stay alive. The fact that we are making money is a great success. We have reached a milestone. We have succeeded in selling our technology to the world’s largest companies. It's a huge relief, 'says CEO Taus Holtug, who heads the company together with MD and researcher Katrine Prier Lindvig.
The two founded Evido Health in 2021. The company was born out of the Centre for Liver Research at Odense University Hospital and the Department of Clinical Research at the University of Southern Denmark.

It's been a wild four years during which the founders have worked hard for their success. We meet them in the shared office Talent Garden Copenhagen, where part of the team is based and where they all meet once a month.
The old building has high ceilings, and the offices are separated by glass walls. One of the smallest is home to Evido. The company employs seven in total, but that’s set to change soon. There will soon be many more, says Katrine Prier Lindvig.
Up to one in four adults have a build-up of fat in their liver
The company has developed software that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to detect liver diseases based on so-called biomarkers in patient blood samples. For people all over the world, this small piece of medical technology can make a big difference.
Up to one in four adults have too much fat in their liver, which is either due to excessive alcohol intake, obesity, or type 2 diabetes.
Fatty liver can develop into cirrhosis for some. Fatty liver causes no symptoms, so often patients with liver disease are referred to the hospital too late to treat the disease.
Three out of four patients with cirrhosis are found and diagnosed far too late, despite the disease developing over 10-30 years. Once a patient has cirrhosis, doctors have very limited treatment options.
”We give the frontline doctors – the ones who meet patients first – a tool they can use. ‘We've been really lucky with the timing, because we wouldn’t have been able to do this five years ago, and in five years it would have been too late.
Evido software can detect sick patients in time
Katrine Prier Lindvig and Taus Holtug are working with their team to turn the bad statistics around. Major pharmaceutical companies are bringing drugs for cirrhosis to market. In 2024 it entered the US market and by 2025 it is expected to enter the European market.
However, the medicine will only help if doctors have better tools to detect sick patients. This is where Evido plays an important role.
GPs see patients with many symptoms and have only a few minutes per patient. When doctors send blood samples to a lab for testing, the AI in Evido's software can indicate if a patient needs further testing for cirrhosis.
‘Our competitors often use more advanced biomarkers that require more sophisticated laboratory equipment, whereas ours use 3–9 everyday standard blood samples. We examine the available information. We have created a flexible tool that can be used by doctors who are not experts in liver disease,’ says Taus Holtug.
Katrine Prier Lindvig adds that having created a software solution is an advantage for them. They don't have to visit GPs in person to sell their software. It’s designed to integrate with existing technology in the labs, which is crucial for getting through to busy doctors.

Technology built on solid research and data
Almost 10 years ago, two consultant physicians and professors, Aleksander Krag and Maja Thiele, together with Katrine Prier Lindvig, who was still studying at the time, began discussing the possibilities of creating a technology that could benefit patients.
They saw many patients in the hospital who either arrived too late and had developed cirrhosis or were not sick at all. Something was needed to help GPs detect which patients were sick.
'Even as a relatively new consultant physician, Aleksander wasn't afraid to declare that the idea had commercial potential. He read the market and the need very early on,' says Katrine, who did a PhD based on their idea of detecting sick patients earlier.
For a doctor, stepping out of the research environment and the clinic requires consideration. The natural path is to become a specialised doctor. It took a few years before Katrine Prier Lindvig was ready. But she knew that the technology would make a bigger difference if it was further developed by a company.
In the meantime, Taus Holtug worked with startups. He was looking for a major problem with great potential he could try his skill on. Going into medtech wasn’t what he had in mind, because the regulatory environment can be a big barrier for a company.
”We started going in a thousand directions with our ideas. We've learnt that we need to cut to the bone and concentrate on the essentials.
Important to go above and beyond
One of the University’s business developers set up a meeting between Taus and Katrine. She only jumped on the startup bandwagon when her gut feeling was right and sensed that she and Taus were a good business match. They are both hard-working, industrious and dream big.
'We started going in a thousand directions with our ideas. We've learnt that we need to cut to the bone and concentrate on the essentials. Our main goal and major milestone was to get our technology certified, because that would ensure the company would continue to operate,' Taus Holtug explains.
From there, things started to take shape. They launched a project with doctors and researchers in Denmark and Norway. The project continues to this day, allowing the business to maintain the knowledge base it started with.

The importance of being rooted in research is emphasised by both founders, who have received strong support from the research environment at OUH and SDU, from which Evido originates. That being said, it’s also been important to get the software out there.
'We could have conducted even more research and product development. Many others do. But we know it works, and we’ve tailored our software to those who will be using it. It’s okay to get started,' says Katrine Prier Lindvig. Taus Holtug adds:
'Our mutual agreement is that our research must have a commercial output. We could do research because it was exciting, but it’s almost a rule that it has to be based on a need. If we ‘just’ did research as a new company,' we would quickly fold.
This year, they have sold their software to large pharmaceutical companies that need to find patients for liver disease studies. These are the sales that put the bottom line in the black. Having come this far is a relief, because Evido’s coffers have been almost empty a couple of times. But they believe in their vision, their product and not least the timing.
'We give the frontline doctors – the ones who meet patients first – a tool they can use. We've been really lucky with the timing, because we wouldn’t have been able to do this five years ago, and in five years it would have been too late,' says Katrine Prier Lindvig.
The first years of Evido Health
-
2020
Katrine Prier Lindvig meets Taus Holtug and size each other up as they seek funding for their first project. - 2021
The startup Evido is launched by Katrine Lindvig and Taus Holtug as the primary founders. - 2022
February: The company is awarded its first funding for a project with researchers and GPs from Stavanger, Norway and the Centre for Liver Research at OUH.
May: Taus works full-time at Evido. Katrine continues her PhD studies and works part-time at Evido.
June: Hiring of CTO. The software needs to be built. Quality management system development, approval and product development.
Christmas: The first version of the software is ready. - 2023
Summer: Evido is approved to produce medical products.
Christmas: Hiring of CCO. It’s time to start selling. - 2024
March: The CE approval is in the bag.
All year: Commercialisation begins. Evido is starting to make money.
Evido profile
- Evido Health - colloquially Evido -is a startup that emerged from research environments at OUH and SDU.
- The company has been involved in several projects. It has developed software capable of detecting chronic liver disease based on results from routine blood tests.
- Evido’s customers include some of the world's largest companies. They use Evido’s software in studies on drugs for liver diseases.
- Meet the Evido team:
Taus Holtug, CEO, founder
Katrine Prier Lindvig, MD, head of research, founder
Aleksander Krag, professor and consultant physician, scientific co-founder
Maja Thiele, professor and consultant physician, scientific co-founder - Read more about Evido