ABOUT PCD

Building a European CareHub

PCD CareHub is the operating company of PCD Investment Partners. We invest in, build, and connect health technology across the Netherlands and Europe — with one goal: making care more human, safer, and more scalable.

WHY

Why we do this

Dutch healthcare is at an inflection point. Aging populations, staffing shortages, and fragmentation demand something other than yet more standalone software. They demand an ecosystem that works the way care works: connected, human, and locally grounded. PCD CareHub was founded on the conviction that we can build that at a European scale — without following the Big Tech playbook.

The healthcare system has been wrestling with the same structural challenges for years: administrative burden on care professionals, data silos between healthcare organizations, and health tech companies building integrations in isolation — only to rebuild them from scratch with every new system. At the same time, European frameworks such as the European Health Data Space (EHDS) and the AI Act are arriving, making interoperability and explainability non-negotiable. That calls for a player that combines capital, technology, and operational expertise — not as three separate disciplines, but as one integrated approach. That is why PCD CareHub was established.

We do not believe in a Silicon Valley approach to Dutch healthcare. The care sector operates on trust, local relationships, and long-term commitment — three things that are poorly suited to quarterly capitalist growth mandates. We are therefore building an ecosystem in which healthcare organizations, health tech vendors, and investors strengthen one another rather than compete. That is not idealism — it is how you create sustainable value in this sector over the long term.

HOW

How we work

A small, trusted board; a monthly cadence; 75% supermajority resolutions. Fast where we can be, thorough where we must be. Compliance as a foundation, not a footnote. Founders in portfolio companies stay in place, with operational autonomy and strategic sparring.

Our board convenes every second Friday of the month. We do not have a fifteen-member advisory council or a slow committee structure — we have six people with direct accountability and a mandate to make decisions. For portfolio matters that can be resolved quickly, we use a lighter-touch round; strategic decisions require a 75% majority. That rhythm keeps us sharp and prevents governance from becoming a delay mechanism.

For portfolio companies, this means concretely: founders retain operational leadership of their business. PCD CareHub delivers what the average scale-up lacks — private-equity-grade financial engineering, legal structuring, compliance frameworks that would otherwise take a full year to build independently, and access to an ecosystem of other healthcare software companies and care organizations. We add capacity; we do not replace entrepreneurship.

WHAT

What we are building

The CareHub ecosystem: an open platform that connects proven healthcare software via FHIR, HL7, and AI assistance. At the same time, we invest in the companies that build that software — through strategic partnership or buy-and-build. We build alongside our portfolio, not on top of it.

Technically, the CareHub is not a monolithic product but a shared integration layer. Existing EHRs, EMRs, scheduling systems, CRM systems, and domain-specific applications from portfolio companies connect via a single set of FHIR resources. This makes each new integration linear in effort rather than exponential — a topic we explore in greater depth in our Insights. AI assistance sits on top of this layer: agents that can execute tasks with explicit governance, an audit trail, and human oversight where it matters.

On the investment side, we evaluate each situation on its own merits. Sometimes buy-and-build is the logical path — existing health tech that we acquire outright and bring into the ecosystem. More often, partnership is more effective: a minority stake or strategic collaboration in which the portfolio company retains its own identity while still benefiting from shared infrastructure, distribution, and compliance. We do not force everything into one model. We look at what the company needs to grow sustainably and what strengthens the ecosystem.

PRINCIPLES

How we think about health tech

Four principles guide every decision — on investments, on technology choices, on how we work with portfolio companies. They are non-negotiable.

Working with, not over

Founders stay in place. Operational autonomy within portfolio companies remains intact; PCD CareHub provides strategic sparring, financial discipline, and technical integration — not micromanagement. We have seen what happens when private equity treats the healthcare sector as a financial engineering exercise. We do not do that.

Coherence over scale

A large portfolio without internal connectivity is more expensive, not less. We select companies based on fit with the ecosystem: complementary capabilities, shared standards, and the ability to exchange data. Five companies working in concert is preferable to fifteen operating in isolation.

Compliance as a foundation

GDPR, NEN 7510, ISO 27001, EHDS, AI Act — the regulatory environment around health technology is not getting simpler. We treat compliance as a design principle, not a footnote. Audit-ready logging, EU data residency, and encryption by default are built into the foundation. For portfolio companies, that is an accelerator, not a constraint.

Locally grounded, scaled across Europe

Healthcare is inherently local — funding structures, language, culture, governance. But the technology is universal. We build on European standards (FHIR, EHDS) and ensure that local teams maintain their own relationship with the care market. Scaling does not mean standardizing.

TIMELINE

From idea to ecosystem

2024PCD is foundedPCD Investment Partners is established as a strategic partner for health technology in the Netherlands, with a sharp focus on buy-and-build. The premise: not investing in an arbitrary portfolio, but building a coherent ecosystem that brings together healthcare organizations and health tech vendors.
2025CareHub visionThe ambition crystallizes: one open ecosystem instead of fragmented assets. Interoperability via FHIR and HL7 becomes the technical foundation — not a proprietary EHR or EMR, but a connectivity layer into which existing healthcare software fits. Compliance by design: NEN 7510 and ISO 27001 incorporated from the outset.
2026First integrations & rebrandPCD Investment Partners becomes PCD CareHub externally — the trading name follows the substance. Portfolio companies are technically connected via one shared integration layer. The CareHub moves from concept to working infrastructure, with the first pilots in mental healthcare and elderly care.
2027European ecosystemPCD CareHub scales across national borders. The buy-and-build strategy is rolled out internationally from a solid Dutch foundation. EHDS compliance, NEN 7510 certification, and EU data sovereignty are the three pillars underpinning the European expansion.

GET IN TOUCH

Meet the people behind the CareHub

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