A total of 25 start-ups seeking to raise more than €55m in funding pitched to an audience of venture capitalists and angel investors at NovaUCD's annual Investor Day event.

The start-ups sought seed to scale investment and represent a diverse range of sectors, including AgTech, AI, cybersecurity, FinTech, MedTech, SportsTech and sustainability.

Among the start-ups pitching were Biosimulytics, MetHealth, Pollinknow and Sports Impact Technologies.

“As outlined in Breaking Boundaries the University’s new strategy to 2030 UCD is at the heart of Ireland’s vibrant economy and as such is committed to its key role in Ireland’s innovation and knowledge exchange," said Prof Kate Robson Brown, UCD vice-president for research, innovation and impact.

"One way we support this commitment is through NovaUCD, the university’s hub for innovation, and its focus on the commercialisation of UCD’s research outputs, creating new ventures, supporting and scaling start-ups, and established companies, with global reach and creating jobs.

"During the NovaUCD Investor Day members of the investor and angel community had the opportunity to meet with and to hear from the founders of UCD spin-out and spin-in companies and early-stage ventures, who are currently seeking investment to support them on their entrepreneurial journeys to address global challenges, to grow, to scale, and to create jobs.”

Biosimulytics has built a predictive software platform for In Silico Drug Development that reduces the risk, time and cost in developing new medicines by addressing major bottlenecks, specifically in the critical area of drug form selection.

The company secured €2.5m in grant funding from the EIC Accelerator in 2023 for product development and plans a €5m seed round in 2025 for which the European Investment Bank is already committed to providing matching equity investment with the lead investors.

MetHealth is building a platform-based technology, with associated patent protected protein panels, that can identify people at high-risk of developing metabolic complications of obesity, particularly obesity-associated liver disease (MASH) and help them to get appropriate treatment.

Following the completion of Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund funding, MetHealth will be seeking a seed round investment of c. €3m to enable accelerated entry into the precision health market and further validation of their in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) panels.

Polliknow has developed a hardware device and software solution for pollinator biodiversity tracking automating ecological data collection.

The company, which has completed a Phase 2 New Frontiers Programme delivered by IADT Media Cube in partnership with NovaUCD, is seeking to raise a pre-seed round during 2025.

Sports Impact Technologies is developing a sports wearable that detects all head impacts as they happen.

The company’s skin-mounted, non-invasive wearables are sports-agnostic, affordable, and easy to use, offering instant alerts and long-term impact tracking.

The company will be seeking to raise €2.5m of investment in Q3 as part of its strategy to break into the US sports market.

Emma Callinan, director of commercialisation at Enterprise Ireland and members of Enterprise Ireland’s Commercialisation and Horizon Europe teams also attended the 2025 NovaUCD Investor Day.

“NovaUCD's Annual Investor Day has grown to become a pivotal gathering of innovation, entrepreneurship, and strategic investment potential which connects visionary investors with exciting start-ups emerging from the NovaUCD ecosystem," said Simon Factor, head of new ventures and investments at NovaUCD.

"Between them these companies are currently seeking to raise €55m in funding to support them to grow and scale which is an indication of the quality and ambition of NovaUCD client companies.”

He added: ”We’d like to thank the members of our investor community who attended our latest NovaUCD Investor Day event and the wider investment community, including Enterprise Ireland, for their continued support. Together, we are transforming innovative ideas into global success stories.”

NovaUCD is seeking applications form start-ups interested in locating at the UCD-based start-up hub. To find out more, visit ucd.ie/innovation/start-ups/locate-at-novaucd/.

Photo: (l-r) Helen McBreen, Atlantic Bridge; Yvan Gouttebelle, MedTech Syndicate; Simon Factor, NovaUCD; Maurice Roche, Delta Partners and Caroline Gaynor, Lightstone Venture. (Pic: Vincent Hoban, UCD)