MetHealth, an early-stage company focused on improving obesity care, has been named University College Dublin's Start-Up of the Year.

The company was awarded a €30,000 after winning the 2022 UCD VentureLaunch Accelerator Programme, which is run by NovaUCD and aims to the support the launch of sustainable and profitable start-ups at the university.

Some 27 NovaUCD client companies took part, pitching to an invited audience of venture capitalists and private investors. Between them, they sought to raise in excess of €100m in seed or Series A funding.

MetHealth is developing a biomarker-based risk-stratification platform and associated digital health solution that can identify patients with complications of obesity, including liver disease.

The platform supports clinical decision making and enhanced delivery of personalised care for individual patients.

In Association with

The MetHealth team includes Dr Fiona McGillicuddy, who took part in the VentureLaunch programme; Prof Stephen Pennington of UCD School of Medicine and UCD Conway Institute; associate professor Catherine Mooney, of UCD School of Computer Science and UCD Conway Institute; Dr Rachel Byrne, of UCD School of Medicine; Dr Anna Antoniadi, of UCD School of Computer Science; and Aleksandra Dudzik, of UCD School of Medicine.

“The global prevalence of obesity is increasing significantly. In the EU alone some 1.2m people are dying annually due to obesity complications, including from liver disease," said Dr McGillicuddy.

“Early identification of those patients with liver inflammation is key but this currently involves painful invasive tests. We are developing a novel biomarker-based platform technology which can, using a blood sample, stratify patients with obesity who are at high risk of complications of obesity including liver disease.

"This non-invasive test eliminates pain for the patient, is significantly more cost effective than an invasive test, can lead to early interventions for high-risk patients and can aid clinical trial recruitment for new drugs targeting the liver.”

She added, “On behalf of the MetHealth team I am delighted to win the 2022 UCD Start-Up of the Year Award following the completion of the VentureLaunch Accelerator Programme at NovaUCD.

"We currently plan to spin-out of UCD at the end of 2023 when we will be seeking to raise €2m in seed funding to set up the MetHealth laboratory and develop a market ready prototype.”

The main objective of the UCD VentureLaunch Accelerator Programme is to equip participants with the knowledge, skills and understanding that will be required to work as part of a team leading a new commercial venture.  

On completion of the programme the expectation is that participating new ventures will have developed a commercially viable business plan.

The programme comprised eight workshops delivered over a two-month period in October and November at UCD. Each sessions consisted of a mix of taught content and interactive workshops given by external experts and talks for entrepreneurs.

Tom Flanagan, director of enterprise and commercialisation at UCD, said: "I would like to congratulate MetHealth, which is focused on transforming obesity care, on winning this year’s VentureLaunch Accelerator Programme. NovaUCD looks forward to working with the MetHealth team to support them to meet their global ambitions."

The €30,000 prize awarded to MetHealth includes a €10,000 cash prize sponsored by AMD, a professional services package sponsored by Deloitte and Bryan Maguire Financial Services, and incubation space at NovaUCD.

The 2022 UCD VentureLaunch Accelerator Programme evaluation panel, which selected the overall winner following pitches by this year’s finalists, was chaired by Dr Helen McBreen, of Atlantic Bridge.

The other members of the panel were; William Byrne, Illumina Ventures; Brendan Farley, AMD, Samira Kaissi, Lightstone Ventures and Alan O’Connell, Seroba.

The other participants on this year’s programme in addition to MetHealth were, Cymantic Medical, Infraprint, Kapitly and LaNua, all of which are currently being supported through the Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund.

Photo: Pictured at NovaUCD is Dr Fiona McGillicuddy, UCD School of Medicine, the MetHealth project lead. (Pic: Nick Bradshaw)