From left: Dr Cormac Farrelly and Minister Peter Burke, TD. Image: Shane O'Neill/Coalesce
Dr Cormac Farrelly, founder and chief medical officer of LaNua, told SiliconRepublic.com yesterday that the start-up plans to spin out of UCD in the coming months.
LaNua Medical, a medtech start-up based in University College Dublin (UCD), has been declared the winner of this year’s Enterprise Ireland Big Ideas Award.
It was one of 10 research-based companies pitching for the top prize at Enterprise Ireland’s Start-Up Day last evening (14 May) in Dublin Castle. Plio Surgical, represented by co-founder Dr Cristina Purtill, was declared the runner-up.
Both LaNua Medical and Plio Surgical will head to San Francisco later this year to attend the Pegasus Start-up World Cup, where LaNua will represent Ireland in the global competition.
Based in NovaUCD, LaNua has developed a minimally invasive medtech solution to embolisation, a procedure that can be used to treat internal bleeding or cause tumour-necrosis. Its Gatekeeper device blocks blood flow to select tissue while enabling targeted therapeutic delivery with reduced risk of side effects.
Dr Cormac Farrelly, founder and chief medical officer of LaNua, told SiliconRepublic.com at the event yesterday that the company plans to spin out of UCD in the coming months and raise more funding to scale its business in the US market.
Great to see Dr Cormac Farrelly, LaNua Medical, an emerging UCD spin-out supported by @NovaUCD , pitching at today's Big Ideas competition as part of the Enterprise Ireland Start-Up Day 2024.
Fingers crossed Cormac. https://t.co/Mf516RrysH
— NovaUCD (@NovaUCD) May 14, 2024
The other start-ups that pitched include: Incasetech (Jaqueline Humphries), Pyramp (Iftekhar Hussain), Arraypatch (Waleed Faisal), Kowroo (Sheelagh Brady), Renovate Pharma (Alan Markey), CommPal (Ciara Heavin), KineMo (Leo Peyton) and SusBioMe (Ajay Menon).
“I would like to congratulate LaNua Medical, a worthy winner of today’s Big Ideas award,” said Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Peter Burke, TD. “I have no doubt [it] will go on to make Ireland proud at the International Start-up World Cup in the US. Enterprise
“Ireland’s Start-Up Day offers an exciting snapshot of the future, showcasing investor-ready start-ups with disruptive technologies that will change our world for the better, as well as providing opportunities for keen investors.”
The Start-Up Day event coincided with an Enterprise Ireland report yesterday that said the state agency invested €24m in 156 Irish start-ups last year. Of these companies, 85 were classed as High Potential Start-Ups (HPSU) while 71 benefitted from the Pre-Seed Start Fund for budding businesses.
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