Dublin startup Beats Medical will be the first Irish company to pitch at the Google Demo Day in Silicon Valley on November 2, one of 12 female-led startups from around the world which will pitch their businesses to over 100 investors, venture capitalists.
CEO Ciara Clancy, who is a finalist in this year’s EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, beat out more than 800 applicants from over 65 countries to secure her place at the Demo Day alongside female entrepreneurs from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Kenya, the Netherlands and the US.
Beats Medical was founded in 2012 and treats mobility, speech and fine hand movement symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, which affects almost 10 million people worldwide. The technology, the first app developed to treat Parkinson’s, provides a form of sound wave treatment called auditory cueing.
This has been used since the 1950s to treat the walking symptoms of Parkinson’s disease such as shortened, shuffling steps and freezing. Beats Medical individually assesses and prescribes this treatment in the home daily via a smartphone to help alleviate symptoms.
Clancy said she hopes the Demo Day will help build awareness for Beats Medical’s technology and ultimately, help more people with Parkinson’s disease.
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“I am honoured to have been given the opportunity to pitch at Google’s Demo Day," she said. "This event is an incredible platform for Beats Medical to showcase the technology that we have developed, and ultimately highlight how it can be used to help those living with Parkinson’s to have a better quality of life, which is at the heart of everything that we do.”
Google began running its annual Demo Days two years ago, but has never featured an Irish company until now, and only two European companies. Its ‘Women’s Edition’ was set up for highly innovative companies founded or co-founded by women, and gives female entrepreneurs in high growth companies the opportunity to present to well-known technology investors.
Investor judges in previous years have included Steve Case, founder of AOL, who has personally invested $1.4 million in previous pitching companies.
Clancy is no stranger to Google, as she won the Google Adopt-A-Startup programme in 2015 and also attended the ‘Google for Entrepreneurs BlackBox’ accelerator in 2014.
Photo: Ciara Clancy (second from left) with, from left, Clodagh Cavanagh, Louise Grubb, Pamela Flood, Anne Heraty, Orla Battersby, Gillian Maxwell and Leona McAllister at EY’s offices ahead of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards on October 27. (Pic: Maxwells)
