EIT Health-supported start-ups in Ireland raise €31.1M in 2021

EIT Health, Europe’s largest health innovation network, today announced that nine of the 76 start-ups it has supported in Ireland to date, raised a total of €31.1M* in 2021. All nine have developed medical device solutions to improve patient outcomes, and six are female founded or co-founded. The largest investment was made in cardiac imaging to treat atrial fibrillation, indicating an area where investors see major potential.

At €14.7M OneProjects raised the highest funds, in Series A2, led by imec.xpand, European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, LSP and Atlantic Bridge Ventures. OneProjects’s solution VERAFEYE™ generates cardiac imaging for physicians, displaying a live 360-degree, high-resolution imagery of the beating heart, as well as real-time tissue analysis. EIT Health provided seed funding to OneProjects in 2018.

Other Irish start-ups that raised funds in 2021, which procured initial grant funding from EIT Health, include AVeta Medical, CrannMed Limited, Gasgon Medical, Luminate Medical, Novus Diagnostics (SepTec), Ostoform, PacSana, and Tympany Medical.

Leslie Harris, Managing Director at EIT Health Ireland-UK said, “Ireland supports a vibrant health innovation community which has helped it become the second biggest exporter of medical device technology globally. Accelerated by the pandemic, major investments are being made in innovative medical devices across Europe, that have potential to optimise patient outcomes. At EIT Health, we are proud to have supported these nine high-potential Irish start-ups during their early days, as they work to scale their medical devices into European markets.”

EIT Health’s Ireland-UK operation relocated its base from the UK to Ireland in 2021, post-Brexit. To date, it has provided acceleration and funding opportunities to 76 Irish MedTech, biotech, and digital health start-ups and SMEs, providing a platform for European market access. It has partnerships with Trinity College Dublin, supporting accelerator programmes run by Tangent, Trinity’s Ideas Workspace, and NUI Galway, supporting start-ups emerging from the BioInnovate Fellowship. Other partners in Ireland include Medtronic and Bluemetrix.

EIT Health is sponsoring MedTech Strategist’s Innovation Summit this week in collaboration with one of its leading programme partners, Investor Network. The EIT Health Investor Network connects qualified companies seeking early-stage funding with the first pan-European consortium of more than 80 healthcare investors across 21 countries. Investor Network has closed €38 million in deals for 12 companies to date.

MedTech Strategist’s Innovation Summit brings together 300 MedTech start-ups and investors, providing a platform for pitching and networking. The event takes place at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin from 26 – 28^th April.

*Source: dealroom.co