12 start-ups will pitch their new technology solutions to investors at Enterprise Ireland's Big Ideas 2022 event on Thursday.
The annual event showcases deep tech start-up innovation emerging from higher education institutes and provides founders with direct access to investors.
Now in its 14th year, Big Ideas takes place in a hybrid form with a live audience at Croke Park and a wider international audience watching online.
Innovations being presented this year address a wide range of issues, including an injectable gel treatment to give superior relief and protection from knee osteoarthritis, AI-powered video summarisation, a wearable medical device to treat dry and sore eyes, and a way to categorise transaction data to determine carbon hotspots and provide recommendations to lower carbon emissions.
The selected pitch teams have three minutes to promote their innovations and business propositions to the audience, which is made up of the Irish research and investment communities and the wider start-up ecosystem.
In Association with
The teams pitching at Big Ideas today are representative of deep tech start-ups in that they must successfully conquer high levels of technical, engineering and science risk in parallel to market and finance risk.
Enterprise Ireland said their combination of talent, and a differentiated, proprietary product means these types of start-ups can be highly disruptive to market incumbents and consequently impactful at a societal and economic level.
"Given the severe global headwinds that Irish businesses are facing, it has never been more important to champion the courage and ambition of Irish founders, as their spirit and drive are the cornerstones of our local and national economies," said Leo Clancy, CEO of Enterprise Ireland.
"Enterprise Ireland is committed to further accelerating entrepreneurship in Ireland and today’s event is an excellent example of this, with the interaction between investors, higher education institutes and our own support teams providing these 12 ambitious founders with an opportunity to take their businesses to the next level.
"The commercialisation of companies, born as a result of a research idea is an imperative for Enterprise Ireland and the State as their success will change our collective future for the better."
The pitch teams will compete for two accolades decided: the One to Watch Award for outstanding pitch of the day, decided by the judging panel, and the Viewer's Choice Award, decided by the audience.
“Ireland has one of the most vibrant and collaborative commercialisation ecosystems in the world – due in no small part to the people that make the system what it is – the entrepreneurs and the founders and the technology and innovations they pursue," said Minister of State for Digital Dara Calleary said.
"The origins of these technology-based start-ups are deep rooted in ground-breaking research emanating from State-funded Irish institutions and this new wave of deep tech entrepreneurs is helping to position Ireland as a leading player on the global innovation scene.
“As these founders face a more challenging start-up funding environment, it’s important to sustain and support their growth, and instruments such as the Disruptive Technology Innovation Fund (DTIF) play a critical role in addressing potential funding gaps for deep tech start-ups."
The 12 Big Ideas 2022 pitches
Darwin &Goliath, a Trinity College spin-out from the ADAPT research centre provides carbon calculators that categorise transaction data to determine carbon hotspots and provide recommendations to lower carbon emissions. The technology enables companies to calculate and ultimately reduce emissions in procurement by comparing vendors and displaying emissions information to end customers. Promoter: Eamonn Donlyn
Fada Medical
With a mission to improve insulin delivery for people living with Type 1 diabetes mellitus. Fada Medical has developed a novel diffusion technology that can extend the wear time of infusion set cannulas, supporting consistent long term insulin pump use. Promoter: Robert Wylie
giyst
An emerging UCD start-up, giyst is using AI (Artificial Intelligence) and machine learning to create video summaries to tackle the issues of information overload and shortening attention spans for business, education and other markets. The aim is to repurpose content to drive better engagement and discovery. Promoter: Avril Power
Infraprint
From medical implants to aircraft engine parts, 3D printing is defining the next industrial revolution. Infraprint’s technology enables the 3D printing of engineering plastics stronger than any system on the market, empowering companies to manufacture high strength, lightweight, customised parts in a cost and time efficient way. This digital technology is leading the way to a sustainable, reliable and energy efficient production process for small batch components, from Aerospace to pharmaceuticals and beyond. Promoter: Andrew Dickson
Lia Therapeutics
Following needs-led research conducted during the BioInnovate Fellowship Programme at University of Galway and a Commercialisation Fund at UCD , Lia Therapeutics has developed NightleafTM, its drug-free, wearable medical device to treat dry and sore eyes. Promoter: Sinead Buckley
NanobOx Maintaining levels of dissolved oxygen in process waters is a significant operating cost and critical to productivity in many commercial bioprocesses. Dr John Favier, a serial entrepreneur, along with Dr Mohammad Ghaani at Trinity College Dublin have developed a highly energy efficient technology for oxygenation of water using nanobubbles. Promoter: John Favier
OPEnS
Dr Conor Lynch, a research fellow & group lead at Nimbus research centre in MTU, has developed a solution for automating energy savings. The company OEPnS has a grid-connected smart network system encompassing energy market-tracking tariff prediction technologies that has the capacity to optimise based on energy cost, carbon emissions or both simultaneously. Promotor: Conor Lynch
Pumpinheart
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) spin-out company Pumpinheart has prototyped a transcatheter implantable diastolic heart pump ‘PReduction’ to treat advanced stage Heart Failure with preserved Ejection Fraction. The management team is mix of clinical, engineering and start-up expertise. Prior to joining RCSI, CMO Dr Aamir Hameed was a cardiothoracic surgeon. CEO Donald Hickey is an experienced EdTech and MedTech entrepreneur and CTO, Dr Andrew Malone is a medical physicist. Promoter: Donald Hickey
ReleviumBio
Having previously managed projects for large multinationals such as ROCHE, Boston Scientific and Cook Medical, Dr Alison Liddy, Co-Founder of ReleviumBio has developed an injectable gel treatment to give superior relief and protection from knee osteoarthritis. The company is targeting knee osteoarthritis as a first clinical indication and plan to extend the treatment indications to target other joints affected by osteoarthritis, where the same treatment problems exist. Promotor: Alison Liddy
TiLT (Transformation in Learning and Training)
For organisations operating in an environment of diversity – this does not necessarily equal inclusion. TiLT has created a training solution to make diverse organisations more inclusive that focuses not on individual unconscious bias training but on shifting the norms around social interaction in the organisation. Promotor: Anne Holohan
UniDoodle has created a digital tool that addresses the problem of student disengagement in class-based learning - a Student Response System that understands students like never before. The Promotor Denise O’Grady is a serial entrepreneur in the EdTech domain, having founded Way2Pay a FinTech / EdTech start-up in 2013 and successfully exiting in 2019 selling to Evo Payments, a USA based, quoted company. Promoter: Denise O’Grady
Vzarii
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a neurodegenerative retinal disease affecting up to 10% of adults over 65 years. Vzarii has developed innovative platform gene therapies that target late-stage dry AMD. The Vzarii gene therapy technologies are the result of pioneering research from the Farrar team at the School of Genetics and Microbiology, Trinity College Dublin. Promotor: Loretto Callaghan
(Pic: Getty Images)
