CEO Rosanne Longmore. Image: Coroflo
Former Tánaiste Mary Harney has also been appointed to the company’s board as it bags significant contracts with Irish pharmacy chains McCabe and McCauley’s.
Coroflo, a medtech start-up based in Dublin, has raised €2.8m in equity funding to bring its patented breastfeeding monitor to market.
Found in 2017 by Jamie Travers and Dr Helen Barry, Coroflo’s flagship product – Coro – is a standard silicone nipple shield containing a patented microflow metre that allows mothers to keep track of exactly how much breastmilk their baby is consuming.
Information is collected by Coro while the baby is breastfeeding, and this real-time data is sent to a smartphone app created by Coroflo.
“Coro is groundbreaking, in terms of its core technology and how it will help mothers achieve their own breastfeeding goals,” said Rosanne Longmore, CEO of Coroflo and a former Davy executive.
“Any positive increase in breastfeeding rates has a hugely significant knock-on effect on the wider health population outcomes for society as a whole.”
An Enterprise Ireland high-potential start-up, Coroflo has raised a total of €4.2m in equity funding to date, including backing and support from the European Innovation Council through its Horizon 2020 programme.
The latest round announced today (14 February) saw participation from Brian Caulfield of Scale Ireland, Shemas Eivers of the Boole Syndicate and several private investors who had backed the company’s seed round.
“The last couple of years have been challenging for businesses, particularly for companies like us with clinical studies being disrupted during the Covid-19 pandemic. Without the support of the European Commission, Enterprise Ireland and our investors, our progress to date could not have been achieved,” Longmore said.
“As we move out of the R&D phase and into manufacturing, launch and commercialisation, we are excited to have the backing of new investors and existing long-standing investors. This latest funding round evidences our investors’ confidence in both the technical and management team and will allow Coro to be made available to mothers for the first time.”
Coroflo now has commercial contracts with Irish pharmacy chains McCabe and McCauley’s, and its product is expected to be available in stores in the second half of this year. The company also has ambitions of expanding into the US, UK and European markets.
“I am delighted to see such a truly groundbreaking innovation being developed, proven and marketed by a highly talented group of young Irish engineers and entrepreneurs,” said former Tánaiste Mary Harney, who has been appointed to the Coroflo board. “This has the potential to improve the health and welfare of mothers and babies worldwide.”
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