UCD spin-out LaNua Medical wins Big Ideas Award at Enterprise Ireland’s Start-Up Day 2024

(Pictured l-r) Dr Cormac Farrrelly, Chief Medical Officer, LaNua Medical is presented with the Enterprise Ireland Big Idea’s award by Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Peter Burke TD.

Dr. Cormac Farrelly of UCD spin-out LaNua Medical, was presented with the Big Idea’s Award by Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Peter Burke at Enterprise Ireland’s Start-Up Day 2024 in Dublin Castle. 

LaNua Medical was one of 10 investor-ready potential spin-outs that had three minutes to pitch their new technology solutions to a 600 strong audience made up of representatives from the Irish Start-up ecosystem including VCs and other funders, State support agencies & professional and financial services. 

The award was presented to Dr. Cormac Farrelly, for the outstanding pitch of the day. LaNua Medical which is an Enterprise Ireland commercialisation funded project approaching spin-out, is developing solutions for problems in embolization, a minimally-invasive 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.

As part of the Big Ideas award, LaNua Medical will now go on represent Ireland at the Pegasus Start-Up World Cup in San Francisco later in the year.

Cristina Purtill of Plio Surgical received the Big Ideas runner-up award on the day and will also travel to San Francisco to attend the Start-Up World Cup.

Presiding over the awards, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Peter Burke TD said, “I would like to congratulate LaNua Medical, a worthy winner of today’s Big ideas award and I have no doubt will go on to make Ireland proud at the International Start-Up World Cup in the US. Enterprise Ireland’s Start-Up Day offers an exciting snapshot of the future, showcasing investor-ready start-ups with disruptive technologies that will change our world for the better, as well as providing opportunities for keen investors.”

Start-Up Day 2024 hosted the ‘Class of 2023’ High Potential Start-Up companies that Enterprise Ireland invested in during 2023. The event also played host to technology-based companies with origins deep rooted in ground breaking research. In 2023, 24 companies were spun out of third level institutions, 16 of which were supported through the Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund Programme. 

Minister Burke continued, “Supporting the commercialisation of research allows us to develop the next generation of innovative High Potential Start-Ups (HPSUs) and last year, 12 HPSUs were successfully generated in partnership with our third level institutions. The government through Enterprise Ireland is committed to supporting the innovative work that is being done in our academic institutions and we look forward to working with these spin-out companies to help them grow and scale.” 

Leo Clancy, CEO, Enterprise Ireland said, “The Big Ideas pitching element and awards at Start-Up Day provides a platform to showcase Enterprise Ireland’s commercialisation funded research approaching start-up status, with significant potential for success. The event also highlights the accomplishments of our national technology transfer system, the high calibre of research commercialisation activity within Ireland, and the significant impact these companies will have to help solve huge global challenges. I wish to congratulate LaNua Medical on their achievements to date and wish them every success at the Start-Up World Cup and beyond.”

ENDS

For more information:

Nicola Corboy

Press Office

Enterprise Ireland

086 021 0114 

nicola.corboy@enterprise-ireland.com

Notes to editor:

Other commercialisation funded projects pitching include:

INCASETECH – TUS Midlands Midwest

The Intelligent Cognitive Assistance System (INCASE) system is an AI powered assembly assistant. Our INCASE technology provides context-specific real-time guidance and validation to the operator in manual assembly, enabling them to reduce errors as they happen. It prevents the propagation of human errors in assemblies, providing a higher quality yield.

Proprietor: Jaqueline Humphries

Pyramp – TUD Dublin

Pyramp has developed a new thermophotovoltaic (TPV) technology, and is the only company to provide a commercial system to generate electricity from industrial waste heat over 1000 °C.

Proprietor: Iftekhar Hussain

Arraypatch – UCC (Cork)

ArrayPatch is a UCC spin-out. Our mission is to provide healthcare-professionals with a superior treatment option, ultimately improving patient-outcomes. This mission is centred around our patent microneedle-technology(DerMap).The treatment of nail fungal-infections represents our initial pathway to market. The potential pipeline-market includes Psoriasis, Skin-Cancer and HRT.

Proprietor: Waleed Faisal

Kowroo – DCU (Dublin)

Kowroo is a risk management platform, empowering business travellers with real-time personalised, alerts, instilling confidence, and willingness to travel, whilst enabling security-managers to support users in navigating business travel with confidence, resulting in enhanced business outcomes and cultivation of a more positive, productive, inclusive work-environment.

Proprietor: Sheelagh Brady

Renovate Pharma – RCSI (Dublin)

Renovate Pharma is a potential spin out from the RCSI School of Pharmacy focusing on repurposing off patent drugs for new indications in chronic respiratory diseases, primarily idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. We aim to become leaders in development of novel inhaled therapeutics for chronic lung diseases.

Proprietor: Alan Markey

CommPAL – UCC (Cork)

CommPAL is an innovative AI solution that supports the efficient and fair allocation of specialist palliative care to the community to get the right care, to the right patient, at the right time. By 2050, the global over-65s population will double to 1.5 billion and as people live longer, all countries are facing a growing demand for palliative care.

Proprietor: Ciara Heavin

KineMo – TCD (Dublin)

KineMo is a startup from TCD which allows you to accurately track & quantify Athlete Kinematics in 3D directly from a single camera device. Using AI to track athlete movement competency over time driving objective decision making during rehabilitation, athlete development and skills progression.

Proprietor: Leo Peyton

Plio Surgical – TCD (Dublin)

Plio Surgical is pioneering a game-changing magnetic anastomosis device for gastrointestinal surgery. The technology enables more surgeons to conduct minimally invasive GI surgery with better outcomes for patients and shorter hospital stays. It addresses a significant worldwide unmet need for less invasive surgical solutions

Proprietor: Cristina Purtill

SusBioMe – UCD Dublin

Renewable gas from anerobic digestion is key for energy security and sustainability but it is held back by inefficient gas capture from feedstocks. SusBioME is creating modular, plug-in disruptive electroprocessing technologies which significantly improve revenues of asset owners by maximising gas yields and efficiency.

Proprietor: Ajay Menon