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These Irish digital health, biotech and medtech start-ups have bagged spots in EIT Health programmes this year.
Eight Irish health-focused start-ups have been selected for “highly competitive” accelerator programmes in Europe run by EIT Health.
Ranging from areas such as biotech and medtech to digital health, the start-ups will now have access to EIT Health’s vast international network of mentors and investors to help them scale their businesses and enter new European markets.
“The selection process is highly competitive, as Irish teams, companies and founders compete against hundreds of others across 26 countries for limited places on each of our programmes,” said Marc Butterly, business creation lead at EIT Health Ireland-UK.
“Navigating the right programme to apply to depends on business, product and market factors. We work to add value to these entrepreneurs’ innovation journeys.”
EIT Health, an EU-funded network of European health-focused innovators, provides funding, training, mentorship and networking opportunities to start-ups.
It revealed last month that it has backed 76 Irish start-ups to date – nine of which, all medical device companies, raised a combined €31m in 2021.
Its Ireland-UK operation, which relocated from the UK to Ireland last year, has partnerships with Trinity College Dublin and NUI Galway, where it supports start-ups through the Tangent and BioInnovate programmes.
Here’s a quick look at the eight Irish start-ups that have bagged spots in the first phase of EIT Health accelerators this year.
Akara Robotics
Joining 15 other companies on the Start-Ups Meet Healthcare Providers accelerator is Trinity spin-out Akara Robotics. This growing Irish start-up has built a fully autonomous UV disinfection robot called Violet, which aims to reduce turnaround times in clinical settings.
The programme will grant Akara direct access to key European stakeholders to test its product at Tartu University Hospital in Estonia.
BioXplor
BioXplor has developed an AI-driven data analytics platform to collect real-world evidence on cancer.
It has been accepted onto EIT Health’s Wild Card programme, in which participants could potentially secure up to €1.5m in European funding to bring their product to market.
Empeal
A health risk and productivity platform designed for workplaces and healthcare practitioners, Empeal was formerly known as Wind of Change. Last June, it won €250,000 at the new Alsessor AI accelerator programme hosted by Trinity’s Tangent and Altada Technologies.
Kids Speech Labs
Founded by Shona and Gordon D’Arcy in 2018, Kids Speech Labs is a software company that has built technology to help children in their speech and language development.
Last year, it was selected for the Women TechEU pilot programme and now it will join 40 other European start-ups in the EIT Health Bridgehead programme.
RemedyBio
RemedyBio is a Dublin-based nanoscale biotechnology company that has developed platforms to better help us understand diseases. The DCU spin-out’s tech is designed to analyse millions of single immune cells rapidly and simultaneously from an individual sample.
xWave Technologies
This health-tech company has developed a cloud-based platform that lets users send referrals from either a computer or mobile device, with a search function to help clinicians in public and private hospitals determine the most appropriate scans to suit patient needs.
Based in Dublin, xWave Technologies has raised €600,000 in pre-seed funding.
Zendra Health
Dublin-based Zendra Health works with healthcare services to provide digital health platforms, with the aim of helping with patient engagement and care optimisation. During the pandemic, the start-up also turned its attention to helping healthcare workers.
Zeumed
Zeumed pitches itself as a precision healthcare costing start-up that designs custom-built tools to identify all costs associated with patient care. This includes detailed information from electronic health records to ensure that even micro-level costs are accounted for.
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