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The finalists, which will be announced in April 2025, will compete at a major European health start-up pitching event.
Three Irish start-ups – Galenband, Tympany Medical and ArrayPatch – representing Ireland and the UK are set to compete with Europe’s leading health innovators at the semi-final round of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Health Catapult pitching competition.
The medtech start-ups from Ireland are among 30 semi-finalists at this year’s event, which provides participants with opportunities to showcase their work on an international stage and engage with industry leaders and investors from across Europe.
The competition, in its ninth year, has supported more than 330 companies since its inception, with participants having won more than €1m in prizes and competition alumni having raised more than €550m in funding rounds. Each year, it pairs innovative start-ups with expert mentorship and investors to support their development and future funding needs.
Co-founded by biomedical engineer Oisín McGrath, electrnoic engineer Patrick Conway and entrepreneur Eddie McDaid in 2020, Galenband is a wearable device that provides a 90-day continues ECG monitoring, offering reliable, non-invasive diagnosis for intermittent heart rhythm issues.
Meanwhile, Tympany Medical, co-founded by Dr Liz McGloughlin and Rory O’Callaghan in 2018, has developed Solascope technology – the world’s first variable angle and self-cleaning imaging tool, creating a more sustainable and advanced approach to surgical visualisation.
ArrayPatch, a biotech spin-out from University College Cork led by Dr Waleed Faisal, uses its patented microneedle technology DerMap to create therapeutics that are more effective and user-friendly. In 2022, the start-up was awarded €738,000 by Enterprise Ireland to develop a medicated ‘band-aid’ to treat fungal infections of the fingernails and toenails.
From the 30 participants in the Catapult competition, nine finalists will be announced in April 2025 – three from life sciences and six from health-tech – who will compete at a major European healthcare event later in that year.
The finalists will be competing for a €30,000 cash prize in each category, along with prizes valued at more than €800,000 from major supporters, including Amazon Web Services, Eg technology, Lusíadas Saúde, and AstraZeneca.
As part of the competition, the winner of the Alex Casta Audience Award will get the opportunity to have their logo displayed on the Nasdaq Tower in New York’s Times Square.
“This year’s semi-finalists represent some of the best innovation in health-tech in the market today,” said Shona D’Arcy, entrepreneurship lead at EIT Health Ireland-UK.
“The Catapult program is aimed at helping these companies to scale and it’s important to see these innovations make it into our healthcare systems.”
Last year, two Irish start-ups, Haon Life Sciences and Myndgard made it to the finals of an EIT Health competition focused on children’s health.
While data from EIT revealed that Irish start-ups backed by the health network raised more than €31m in 2021 and more than €75m in 2022.
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