5 Ireland-UK start-ups reach EIT Health Catapult Final

Five start-ups from Ireland-UK have secured their places at the EIT Health Catapult Final. The finalists will join 16 other European start-ups to represent the most promising innovations across biotech, medtech and digital health.

The EIT Health Catapult, currently in its sixth year, boosts the development of European health start-ups by exposing them to leading experts and international investors. Winners often go on to achieve impressive growth.

Notably, two of last year’s winners recently celebrated acquisitions, following their success in 2020. Second in last year’s biotech category, PhagoMed, were acquired by BioNTech and Patchai were acquired by US-based Alira Health, having come third in digital health.

Dr. Kurt Höller, Director of Business Creation at EIT Health, said: “After the EIT Health Catapult success stories from the past two years, we are thrilled to announce 21 promising start-ups that will compete in our finals live on stage. We look forward to seeing what the winners go on to achieve with our support.”

Meet the Ireland-UK finalists

Biotech

Podium finalists:

SolasCure (UK): makes Aurase®, a hydrogel containing a safe, active, highly specific enzyme, isolated and cloned from medical maggots which promotes faster wound cleaning.

Medtech

Podium finalists:

Luminate Medical (Ireland): develops a novel technology to manage off-target drug delivery. Their product, Lily, provides a portable, patient-focused treatment to prevent chemo induced hair loss.

Finalists (runners up):

FeelTect (Ireland): has developed Tight Alright, the first connected health platform for monitoring compression therapy; improving healing, reducing costs, and facilitating self-managed treatment.

Digital Health

Podium finalists:

Brightlobe (UK): has invented patent-pending technology that can assess and support a child’s brain development using clinically validated mobile games.

Finalists (runners up):

Amara Therapeutics (Ireland): develops a prescription digital therapeutic platform, RiSolve, for the treatment of Overactive Bladder.

The EIT Health Catapult Finals

Each team will now pitch their solution to the EIT Health network at the EIT Health Summit, due to take place May 24th – 25th 2022, in Stockholm, Sweden. The EIT Health network is one of the largest healthcare communities worldwide including over 150 leading healthcare organisations.

The three Podium finalists in each category (medtech, biotech and digital health) will compete for three prizes: €40,000, €20,00, and €10,000. One of the finalists will also win the “Alex Casta Audience Award”. This gives them a unique opportunity to have their logo displayed on the Nasdaq Tower in New York’s Times Square, where it will be seen by millions of people worldwide.

The EIT Health Summit will see our vibrant community of world-leading healthcare innovators come together to envision a long-lasting agenda for healthcare in Europe. The EIT Health Catapult Final and award ceremony will happen on 24th May. Learn more and register your interest.

Applications open for EIT Health Catapult 2022 in January. Find out more.