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Nine Irish medtech start-ups backed by the EU-funded EIT Health network went on to raise funding last year.
EIT Health has revealed that of the 76 Irish start-ups it has backed to date, nine raised a total of €31.1m in 2021.
All nine start-ups have developed medical devices to improve patient health and outcomes, and six of them have been founded or co-founded by women.
A not-for-profit funded by the EU, EIT Health is one of Europe’s largest networks of health innovators.
This network is made up of 150 partners in Europe’s healthcare ecosystem, with the aim to develop new technologies that could help patients. As well as funding, it provides training, mentorship and networking opportunities to start-ups.
The Irish EIT Health-backed start-up that went on to raise the greatest funding last year was Galway-based OneProjects. This company is developing cardiac imaging tech and data analytics to treat atrial fibrillation, or AFib, which is an irregular heartbeat caused by chaotic electric signals.
EIT Health provided seed funding to OneProjects in 2018 and in October last year the start-up bagged $17m in fresh financing.
The other Irish start-ups that secured initial grant funding from EIT Health and went on to raise further financing last year were AVeta Medical, CrannMed, Gasgon Medical, Luminate Medical, Novus Diagnostics, Ostoform, PacSana and Tympany Medical.
“Ireland supports a vibrant health innovation community, which has helped it become the second biggest exporter of medical device technology globally,” said Leslie Harris, managing director of EIT Health Ireland-UK.
“Accelerated by the pandemic, major investments are being made in innovative medical devices across Europe, that have potential to optimise patient outcomes.”
In 2020, EIT Health awarded €5.5m to 11 health-focused start-ups, including Irish medtech Neurent Medical, to help alleviate the financial stress caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
EIT Health’s 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.
It is also one of the sponsors of the Medtech Strategist Innovation Summit taking place in Dublin this week, where international medtech start-ups, including several from Ireland, are pitching their innovations to a host of investors and industry leaders.
Updated, 5.15pm, 26 April 2022: The previous headline on this article was ‘Irish medtechs raised more than €31m from EIT Health in 2021’. This was amended to clarify that Irish medtechs that have been backed by EIT Health raised more than €31m last year.
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