Three Enterprise Ireland Companies Secure €24m in Horizon Europe Funding

The European Commission has released evaluation results showing that three Enterprise Ireland-backed companies have been selected and approved for a total of €24.3m in funding from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator Programme.

Part of the EU’s Horizon Europe 2021-2027 Research and Innovation Programme, the EIC Accelerator Programme provides grant funding of up to €2.5 million combined with an equity investment ranging from €0.5 to €15 million in a blended finance offer.

The three successful Irish companies are ATXA Therapeutics, Peregrine Technologies and Ostoform Limited. The successful Irish led projects cover areas including accelerating the clinical path of a disea modifying drug targeting cardiopulmonary disease; AI development and robotics targeting the WEEE recycling sector and the development of a novel appliance to improve the skin condition of ostomy bag users.

The EIC Accelerator Programme provides transformational funding to high-potential, high-risk start-ups, scale ups and SMEs led by a strong, well-balanced leadership team which are already making good progress in commercialising highly differentiated, deep-tech products capable of creating new markets or disrupting existing ones.

In this second round of the 2022 EIC programme, 75 companies from 21 European countries were selected by panels of experienced investors and entrepreneurs to receive over €396 million in funding. Over one thousand organisations applied, 265 of which were shortlisted for the interview phase.

Leo Clancy, CEO, Enterprise Ireland said: “Enterprise Ireland welcomes this announcement by EIC. It is a great success for Ireland and is testament to the capability and talent within the Irish research and innovation system. Start-ups, particularly in the deep-tech sector play a critical role in the development and growth of regional innovation ecosystems. The three successful Enterprise Ireland applicants, working with the EIC, will be able to enhance their entrepreneurial capability and get the critical support required at this juncture in their development and scaling journey.”

Commenting on the announcement, ATXA’s Founder and CEO Prof. Therese Kinsella stated: “We are honoured to accept this prestigious EIC award endorsing us as a disruptive, deep-tech, innovative technology within the wider EC community. We believe it will be transformational in enabling us to fulfil our mission to bring accessible, affordable, and life-changing treatments for heart and lung diseases.”

Commenting on the announcement, Peregrine Technologies CEO Paudy O’Brien said: “The EIC Accelerator funding is a game-changer for us as we scale FPD Recycling, our dedicated end-to-end solution for recycling flat panel displays. Electronic waste is the fastest growing and most hazardous waste on the planet. Using AI-powered technology, our mission is to ensure that every used flat screen become a valuable commodity rather than hazardous waste in landfill. This funding will enable us to scale internationally, create new high-level jobs in Ireland and abroad, and upgrade existing sites. It has been a long process, but it is gratifying to see everyone’s hard work pay off.”

The EIC is an integral part of the Innovative Europe pillar of Horizon Europe, the EU research and innovation €95.5bn programme which provides funding to projects through open and competitive calls for proposals and presents insights and expectations from the European Commission whilst offering a unique international networking experience to forge winning partnerships of the future.

Since its launch in March 2021, over 7,000 start-ups and SMEs have sent their ideas and over 4000 have submitted full applications. The companies announced in this round were among the 1006 that submitted to the second 2022 cut-off on 15 June, and join the 238 companies selected for funding by the EIC in 2021 and 2022.

ENDS

European Innovation Council - Horizon Europe

The EIC Accelerator supports individual Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), in particular start-ups and spin-out companies to develop and scale up game-changing innovations. In some cases, small mid-caps (up to 500 employees) are supported.

The EIC Accelerator provides substantial financial support with:

• grant funding (non-dilutive) of up to €2.5 million for innovation development costs
• investments (direct equity investments) of up to €15 million managed by the EIC Fund for scale up and other relevant costs.

In addition, EIC selected companies receive coaching, mentoring, access to investors and corporates, and many other opportunities as part of the EIC community.

The EIC Programme now also includes EIC Pathfinder for earlier stage development of future technologies as well as EIC Transition for taking the next steps towards technical and commercial validation. Both of these programmes are upstream of the EIC Accelerator programme and have their own eligibility criteria.

The EIC welcomes applications from innovators in all EU Member States and countries associated to the Horizon Europe programme. It particularly welcomes applications from start-ups and SMEs with female CEOs.

About ATXA Therapeutics

Headquartered in Dublin, ATXA Therapeutics Limited (ATXA) is a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company committed to bringing innovative, life-changing treatments to the market and the patient, primarily for cardiopulmonary (heart and lung) diseases.

We have developed and are clinically advancing our proprietary novel, first-in-class drugs that block (antagonize) the thromboxane receptor, a critical drug target implicated in many prevalent diseases but poorly served by good therapies today. As such, ATXA’s drugs have so-called platform potential to treat a wide range of diseases. Through our research & development work, we have extensively validated several of our drugs in state-of-the-art animal models of diseases of the heart & lung (cardiopulmonary), as well as in blood clotting (thrombosis), acute pulmonary inflammation, oncology, and certain other clinical conditions. ATXA is initially focused on clinical advancement of our lead drug NTP42 for the treatment of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) and related cardiopulmonary diseases. NTP42 is confirmed to display excellent specificity, safety, and efficacy to treat this disease in the gold-standard PAH disease models. In the past year, NTP42 was tested in a first-in-human Phase I clinical trial where it was confirmed as safe, well-tolerated, and pharmacologically active at low oral doses.

ATXA’s drugs pipeline is protected by a strong existing (currently 14 granted patents, mainly valuable composition-of-matter patents) and a growing patent estate globally. As a critical endorsement of its clinical potential, ATXA has Orphan Drug Designation for use of NTP42 in PAH from both the European Medicines Agency and the US Food & Drug Administration, carrying with it important business incentives for the company.

About Peregrine Technologies

Having identified a substantial gap in the electrical waste (e-waste) recycling market, Peregrine Technologies was founded in 2018 by Paudy O’Brien, Gary Moloney, and Declan Lynch.

Headquartered in Limerick, Peregrine Technologies is a clean-tech AI robotics company. It drives the circular economy, ensuring that e-waste is recycled in a safe, sustainable and profitable process driven by AI. Peregrine Technologies is a member of Irish Manufacturing Research and CIRCULÉIRE, the national platform for circular manufacturing.

FPD Recycling

FPD Recycling is Peregrine Technologies’ first division, a dedicated end-to-end automated solution to recycle flat panel displays.
With clients in the USA, Europe and Australia, the company’s vision is that every used flat screen in the world becomes a valuable commodity rather than hazardous waste in landfill. Using AI-powered extraction, FPD Recycling enables the best possible material recovery rates and the safest human and environmental outcomes.

FPD Recycling’s core product, FPD PRO® is a fully automated, low-cost robotic recycling system that transforms FPD recycling into profit.