The money raised in the pre-seed funding round will be used to roll out the company’s beta model and address the issue of undetected head injuries in athletes.
Sports Impact Technologies has raised €650,000 in a pre-seed round. The funds will be used to roll out a beta model of its compact, behind-the-ear wearable that aims to detect the severity of a head impact in real time and determine the likelihood of a concussion.
The Irish start-up, which was established in 2022 by Eóin Tuohy, is headquartered at NovaUCD in Dublin. The investment was led by private investors, with the support of Enterprise Ireland’s High-Potential Start-Up (HPSU) funding.
The wearable sensor works by sitting discretely behind the user’s ear, monitoring impacts by recording head accelerations during sports. Data and alerts are sent in real time via an app to decision-makers, for example coaches, medical staff and safety officials, who can use that information to determine if a player needs to be removed from the game and assessed for a potential concussion.
“It is estimated that between 5pc and 10pc of players experience a concussion in any given sports season,” said CEO and founder Tuohy. “With five in 10 concussions going unreported or undetected leading to players experiencing long-term health implications.
“Using our smart sensor technology to monitor head impacts in real time, our goal is to make unrecognised concussions a thing of the past, protecting athletes, optimising their performance and enabling participation.”
He added that this September Sports Impact Technologies will launch beta-testing programmes with test subjects taking part in a range of sports, such as American football, rugby, soccer, hockey and GAA football. The aim is to gather data that will better position the company ahead of a full product launch in 2026.
Sports Impact Technologies was recently named among the top 15 companies at this year’s Medical Device Development Centre competition hosted by the University of Massachusetts. Following pitches directed at a panel of judges, Sports Impact Technologies came away with third place.
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