Friday 26th July 2024
This Research Week, we look at some of Ireland's most promising startups, from medtechs and video tools to AI voice assistants, that are backed by research.
It is no secret that transitioning from a lab to the marketplace is not an easy one for any startup project, and warrants great skill from the researcherturnedentrepreneur to lead the business.
But some of Ireland's most promising startups are born every year in the many universities and institutes of technology across the island, such as APC and VLE Therapeutics, a spinout of University College Dublin (UCD) announced a €100m capital expansion plan at the start of January with Enterprise Ireland.
But APC is far from the only Irish startup seeing great commercial success after spinning out of a research hub. In this list, we take a look at some emerging startups backed by research that are catching the eyes of investors and developing technologies to improve lives.
Amethyst Care
We're kicking off this list with our most recent Startup of the Week , founded earlier this year by Rebecca McManus and led by former Adapt chair Prof Vinny Wade. Amethyst Care is currently a project based in Trinity College Dublin that is working on developing an AIpowered voice assistant for people with mobility issues, such as Parkinson's or dementia.
The product comes with a range of features, including continuous monitoring of vital signs, medication and appointment reminders, emergency alerts and realtime updates for family and healthcare professionals. Just last week, Amethyst Care raised more than €500,000 from Enterprise Ireland and now aims to begin trials by January 2024, with eyes on the US.
Carrick Therapeutics
Based at NovaUCD in Dublin, Carrick Therapeutics is an oncologyfocused biopharma startup aiming to discover and develop highly differentiated therapies for the treatment of cancers. It was cofounded by Dr Elaine Sullivan, a molecular virologist with extensive experience across big names in pharma, including AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly, who led the startup as CEO until 2019.
The clinicalstage company is currently led by CEO Tim Pearson and recently moved its headquarters from Dublin to Boston in a bid to grow its presence in the US market. It raised $60m in December , backed by Pfizer and a host of existing investors to fund ongoing and future clinical trials of samuraciclib , a novel oral treatment for patients with advanced breast cancer.
Deciphex
This DCU Alpha pathology startup was declared Medtech Company of the Year in December 2023 for its AI diagnostic platform. Deciphex has been developing a digital and fully remote expert pathology service that aims to eliminate the need for physical samples to be transported miles for diagnoses and significantly reduce wait times.
Founded in 2017, the startup has also developed a digital pathology workflow and integrated AI platform for research pathology. It is led by cofounder Donal O'Shea and recently announced a multimillioneuro partnership with Swiss pharma giant Novartis to develop AI tools for drug discovery and development.
Giyst
Another Startup of the Week from last year, Corkbased Giyst has built a video summarisation platform that uses AI to discover and enable efficient consumption of the “essence” of content. The startup is a spinout of University College Dublin that was launched earlier this year with the help of NovaUCD and CeADAR.
“The idea behind Giyst is to remove the challenges involved in repurposing video content, be it keynote speeches, Ted Talks, webinars, interviews, lectures, learning and development content, HR videos, tutorials or Zoom meetings,” cofounder Colm Murphy told SiliconRepublic.com last year. “We do this by utilising the power of AI to transform what is typically a timeconsuming process of manual video editing into a matter of minutes.”
Haon Life Sciences
One of two Irish startups to be selected as finalists at the EIT Health European Wild Card competition focused on children's health last year, Dublinbased Haon Life Sciences has built a novel cell therapy platform with potential to
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treat paediatric and adult diseases with high unmet need.
The lead candidate is an intranasal treatment for neonatal hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy or HIE, a disease which primarily affects newborns and is one of the leading causes of neonatal deaths worldwide. Haon Life Sciences was founded in 2022 by chair Mark O'Neill, who is also chief financial officer at Dublinbased pharma manufacturer Afimmune.
LaNua Medical
Based in NovaUCD, LaNua has developed a minimally invasive medtech solution to embolisation, a procedure that can be used to treat internal bleeding or cause tumournecrosis. Its Gatekeeper device blocks blood flow to select tissue while enabling targeted therapeutic delivery with reduced risk of side effects.
The startup was declared the winner of this year's Enterprise Ireland Big Ideas Award in May and will represent Ireland at the Pegasus Startup World Cup in San Francisco next month.
Dr Cormac Farrelly , founder and chief medical officer of LaNua, told SiliconRepublic.com at Big Ideas that the company plans to spin out of UCD in the coming months and raise more funding to scale its business in the US market.
Myndgard
This spinout of Trinity College Dublin focuses on youth mental health. Founded by Dr Sean Kelley, Dr Edel Crehan and Pat Flynn in 2021, Myndgard is working with customers conducting clinical trials to improve its offering and raising funds to prepare for a market expansion.
Myndgard was also selected as a finalist at the EIT Health European Wild Card competition focused on children's health last year – the other Irish startup being Haon Life Sciences.
NeuroBell
A spinout of University College Cork and the Irish Centre for Maternal and Child Health Research, NeuroBell specialises in the manufacturing of medical devices for newborns. It was founded by Dr Mark O'Sullivan, Dr Alison O'Shea and Colm Murphy and is working on the development of an AIpowered medical device that can detect seizures in babies, thereby reducing the longterm risk of brain injuries.
With the device, NeuroBell is aiming to make it easier to treat tiny patients admitted to the country's neonatal intensive care units. Brain injuries because of a traumatic birth can affect babies' health in lifealtering ways, leading to conditions such as cerebral palsy and epilepsy. NeuroBell raised €2.1m in January in a round coled by FurthrVC.
SeamlessCare
Founded by philosopherturnedentrepreneur Dr Aviva Cohen, SeamlessCare is building technology that is focused on enhancing communication and support for people with a wide range of disabilities such as autism, acquired brain injury and dementia. A spinout of UCD, SeamlessCare was among 11 researchbased high potential startups backed by Enterprise Ireland in 2021.
It raised €700,000 in 2022 to speed up the rollout of its assistive tech – including AIpowered Empathic, a unique technology to support interactions with people who have no other means of communication. As of November, the Startup of the Week was preparing to launch Empathic for service providers, including hospitals, schools, nursing
homes and rehabilitation centres.
Source: siliconrepublic.com