Galway medical devices company Bluedrop Medical has secured €2.5m from the European Innovation Council and will use the cash to bring its AI-powered medical device to market in Europe and the US.
An initial seed investment of €1.2m last year included HBAN’s MedTech Syndicate, which invested €340,000. Enterprise Ireland also invested in the funding round, along with Johannes Hoff, Rob Pettit and Amerihealth Inc in Philadelphia.
Bluetop was established by medical device entrepreneurs Chris Murphy and Simon Kiersey, since joined by chief technical officer Gavin Corley. The company is developing user solutions for the diabetic foot, an issue which results in hundreds of thousands of amputations worldwide each year.
Chief executive Chris Murphy said: "Our system could save the Irish health service €40m per year on treatments associated with diabetic foot ulcers, and we are hoping to collaborate with them to achieve this goal. We estimate the total worldwide market for our device to be more than €3 billion."
The EIC selected 108 projects for its latest funding round, including a hybrid simulation platform for neurosurgery, a recyclable kitchen countertop stone, a technology replicating the rain process to supply sustainable drinking water, an anti-metastatic cancer vaccine, a kite collecting wind energy, a technology to map air quality with high-spatial resolution and a periscopic stereo depth camera.
In Association with
Its accelerator programme will provide almost €3 billion in funding under Horizon 2020 in the next two years, offering optional equity investment in addition to a grant.
Innovative companies can apply for a grant only, or up to €17.5m in combined grant and equity financing, to scale up quickly. The grants are between €500,000 and €2.5m and equity investment can amount to as much as €15m.
The next cutoff dates for EIC Accelerator (grant only and blended finance) and Fast Track to Innovation are on October 9 and 22 respectively.
Photo (l-r): Bluedrop Medical founders Chris Murphy and Simon Kiersey with Colin Henehan, HBAN MedTech Syndicate. (Pic: Michael Dillon)
