Ireland’s medical-techology company, BiancaMed, has today raised an additional €6m in second-round venture capital (VC) funding from pan-European VC firm Seventure Partners.
This is the first time that Seventure has invested outside of continental Europe. Three of BiancaMed’s existing investors – ePlanet Ventures, Enterprise Ireland and ResMed – also participated in this round. Go4Venture advised BiancaMed in its fund-raising process.
BiancaMed, which is is headquartered in NovaUCD, has developed and is marketing SleepMinder, an accurate, contactless and convenient device for the measurement of sleep and breathing in the home.
With this new capital BiancaMed intends to expand its core team, while also speeding up the launch of several innovative consumer products with existing ‘go-to-market’ partners to target the wellness space.
This cash injection will also enable the company to continue the development of clinical products targeting unmet needs in areas, such as sleep apnoea screening and disease management.
As BiancaMed co-founder and CEO Conor Hanley (pictured) explained: “With this new financing, we will be able to accelerate the commercial development of our proprietary non-contact, sleep-monitoring technology. It is a strong validation of our firm’s technology and strategy that we have secured investment from a new, value-add investor such as Seventure and the continued support of our existing investors.”
The technology at the core of BiancaMed’s SleepMinder was initially developed at UCD’s School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering by Dr Conor Heneghan, BiancaMed’s chief scientific officer, and Dr Philip de Chazal, the company’s chief technology officer.
Donald Fitzmaurice, BiancaMed’s chairman and a partner with ePlanet, also commented: “We have been strong supporters of BiancaMed since our initial investment in the company in 2005. We expect the market for sleep-monitoring products to grow strongly in the coming years and BiancaMed is very well positioned to benefit from this growth. The company is at an exciting point in its commercial development.”
Seventure general partner Isabelle de Cremoux added: “BiancaMed is a unique company with a breakthrough technology in the massive, US$20bn global sleep market.”
Iain Wilcock of Seventure will join BiancaMed’s board of directors. He has previously served as a non-executive director of a number of companies, including Avidex, Oxxon Therapeutics, Xention and Vivacta.
By Carmel Doyle
Pictured: Dr Conor Hanley, founder and CEO of NovaUCD-headquartered BiancaMed
