9 Irish start-ups born out of research to keep an eye on

This Research Week, we look at some of Ireland’s most promising start-ups that are backed by research, from medtechs and video tools to AI voice assistants.

It is no secret that transitioning from a lab to the marketplace is not easy for any start-up project, and warrants great skill from the researcher-turned-entrepreneur to lead the business.

But some of Ireland’s most promising start-ups are born every year in the many universities and institutes of technology across the island, such as APC and VLE Therapeutics, a spin-out of University College Dublin (UCD) which announced a €100m capital expansion plan at the start of January with Enterprise Ireland.

But APC is far from the only Irish start-up seeing great commercial success after spinning out of a research hub. In this list, we take a look at some emerging start-ups backed by research that are catching the eyes of investors and developing technologies to improve lives.

Amethyst Care

We’re kicking off this list with our most recent Start-up of the Week, founded earlier this year by Rebecca McManus and led by former Adapt chair Prof Vinny Wade. Amethyst Care is currently a project based in Trinity College Dublin that is working on developing an AI-powered voice assistant for people with mobility issues, such as Parkinson’s.

The product comes with a range of features, including continuous monitoring of vital signs, medication and appointment reminders, emergency alerts and real-time updates for family and healthcare professionals. Just last week, Amethyst Care raised more than €500,000 from Enterprise Ireland and now aims to begin trials by January 2025, with eyes set on the US.

Carrick Therapeutics

Based at NovaUCD in Dublin, Carrick Therapeutics is an oncology-focused biopharma start-up aiming to discover and develop highly differentiated therapies for the treatment of cancers. It was co-founded by Dr Elaine Sullivan, a molecular virologist with extensive experience across big names in pharma, including AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly. Sullivan led the start-up as CEO until 2019.

The clinical-stage company is currently led by CEO Tim Pearson and recently moved its headquarters from Dublin to Boston in a bid to grow its presence in the US market. It raised $60m in December, backed by Pfizer and a host of existing investors to fund ongoing and future clinical trials of samuraciclib, a novel oral treatment for patients with advanced breast cancer.

Deciphex

This Dublin City University Alpha pathology start-up was declared Medtech Company of the Year in December 2023 for its AI diagnostic platform. Deciphex has been developing a digital and fully remote expert pathology service that aims to eliminate the need for physical samples to be transported miles for diagnoses and significantly reduce wait times.

Founded in 2017, the start-up has also developed a digital pathology workflow and integrated AI platform for research pathology. It is led by co-founder Dr Donal O’Shea and recently announced a multimillion-euro partnership with Swiss pharma giant Novartis to develop AI tools for drug discovery and development.

Giyst

Another Start-up of the Week from last year, Cork-based Giyst has built a video summarisation platform that uses AI to discover and enable efficient consumption of the “essence” of content. The start-up is a spin-out of University College Dublin that was launched in 2023 with the help of NovaUCD and CeADAR.

“The idea behind Giyst is to remove the challenges involved in repurposing video content, be it keynote speeches, Ted Talks, webinars, interviews, lectures, learning and development content, HR videos, tutorials or Zoom meetings,” co-founder Colm Murphy told SiliconRepublic.com last year. “We do this by utilising the power of AI to transform what is typically a time-consuming process of manual video editing into a matter of minutes.”

Haon Life Sciences

One of two Irish start-ups to be selected as finalists at the EIT Health European Wild Card competition focused on children’s health last year, Dublin-based Haon Life Sciences has built a novel cell therapy platform with potential to treat paediatric and adult diseases with high unmet need.

The lead candidate is an intranasal treatment for neonatal hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy or HIE, a disease which primarily affects newborns and is one of the leading causes of neonatal deaths worldwide. Haon Life Sciences was founded in 2022 by chair Mark O’Neill, who is also chief financial officer at Dublin-based pharma manufacturer Afimmune.

LaNua Medical

Based in NovaUCD, LaNua Medical 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.

The start-up was declared the winner of this year’s Enterprise Ireland Big Ideas Award in May and will represent Ireland at the Pegasus Startup World Cup in San Francisco in October.

Dr Cormac Farrelly, founder and chief medical officer of LaNua, told SiliconRepublic.com at Big Ideas that the company plans to spin out of UCD and raise more funding to scale its business in the US market.

Myndgard

This spin-out of Trinity College Dublin focuses on youth mental health. Founded by Dr Sean Kelley, Dr Edel Crehan and Pat Flynn in 2021, Myndgard is working with customers conducting clinical trials to improve its offering and raising funds to prepare for a market expansion.

Myndgard was also selected as a finalist at the EIT Health European Wild Card competition along with Haon Life Sciences.

NeuroBell

A spin-out of University College Cork and the Irish Centre for Maternal and Child Health Research, NeuroBell specialises in the manufacture of medical devices for newborns. It was founded by Dr Mark O’Sullivan, Dr Alison O’Shea and Colm Murphy and is working on the development of an AI-powered medical device that can detect seizures in babies, thereby reducing the long-term risk of brain injuries.

With the device, NeuroBell is aiming to make it easier to treat tiny patients admitted to the country’s neonatal intensive care units. Brain injuries because of a traumatic birth can affect babies’ health in life-altering ways, leading to conditions such as cerebral palsy and epilepsy. NeuroBell raised €2.1m in January in a round co-led by FurthrVC.

SeamlessCare

Founded by philosopher-turned-entrepreneur Dr Aviva Cohen, SeamlessCare is building technology that is focused on enhancing communication and support for people with a wide range of disabilities such as autism, acquired brain injury and dementia. A spin-out of UCD, SeamlessCare was among 11 research-based high-potential start-ups backed by Enterprise Ireland in 2021.

It raised €700,000 in 2022 to speed up the roll-out of its assistive tech – including AI-powered Empathic, a unique technology to support interactions with people who have no other means of communication. As of November 2023, the former Start-up of the Week was preparing to launch Empathic for service providers, including hospitals, schools, nursing homes and rehabilitation centres.

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