The company’s novel technology allows drug-makers to quickly analyse opaque liquids, a hurdle for manufacturers previously.
Deep-tech start-up Marama Labs, which is based in New Zealand and Ireland, has secured €280,000 in funding from Enterprise Ireland to expand its Irish operations.
The funding is part of Enterprise Ireland’s High Potential Start-Up scheme that has supported the likes of Skippio and Binarii Labs this year and 85 other start-ups last year.
Earlier this year, Marama Labs raised €1.75m in a seed-plus funding round led by The Yield Lab to develop its novel spectroscopy technology, bringing its total funding to €2m.
The company was founded in New Zealand in 2019 by Dr Brendan Darby, Dr Matthias Meyer and Professor Eric Le Ru.
The investments will fund a commercially focused applications lab in north Dublin and the hiring of a life-sciences applications team to support customers in the Northern Hemisphere.
“Ireland’s position as a leader in the global life sciences industry provides the perfect launchpad for Marama Labs to scale our commercial footprint in the Northern Hemisphere life sciences market,” said Darby, the CEO of Marama Labs.
Marama Labs has developed a novel device focused on spectroscopy – the study of the absorption and emission of light and other radiation by matter. The company uses this technology to rapidly analyse the chemistry of highly complex liquids in industries such as life sciences and fermentation.
The company’s device – known as CloudSpec UV-Vis spectrophotometer – allows winemakers to boost their decision-making by providing them previously unavailable quantitative chemical data.
The CloudSpec also has applications in the life sciences industry where drug-makers can analyse opaque liquids, a hurdle for manufacturers using existing technology. The device is able to quantify crucial information about nanomedicines in seconds, compared to the hours it takes with existing technology, the company claims.
Marama Labs is working with therapeutic manufacturers to speed up their drug discovery and manufacturing workflows. The company hopes to launch its product on the market next year.
“Our mission is to become a global leader in scientific instrumentation, removing bottlenecks in the chemical analysis of liquids, enabling faster and cheaper development of life-saving products,” Darby said.
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