8 high-potential health innovation start-ups in Ireland secure places on seven competitive European programmes facilitated by EIT Health.
EIT Health, Europe’s largest health innovation network, today announced that eight Irish biotech, digital health and medtech start-ups have been selected for seven of its highly competitive business accelerator programmes for phase-one 2022.
The selected Ireland-based companies, which all seek to improve patient outcomes, include Akara Robotics, BioXplor, Empeal, Kids Speech Labs, Remedy Bio, xWave Technologies, Zendra Health, and Zeumed.
“The selection process is highly competitive, as Irish teams, companies, and founders compete against hundreds of others across 26 countries for limited places on each of our programmes”
Each business will benefit from access to a vast network of internationally renowned experts, mentors, and investors, as well as support with entering new European markets.
Added value from innovation
“The selection process is highly competitive, as Irish teams, companies, and founders compete against hundreds of others across 26 countries for limited places on each of our programmes,” said Marc Butterly, Business Creation Lead at EIT Health Ireland-UK.
“We’re proud at EIT Health Ireland-UK to help these eight selected companies accelerate into Europe.
“Navigating the right programme to apply to depends on business, product, and market factors. We work to add value to these entrepreneurs’ innovation journeys.”
Kid’s Speech Labs, which has developed software to help parents track their children’s speech and language development via an app, will join 40 other European start-ups the Bridgehead programme. This helps health entrepreneurs access new European and international markets quickly, by tapping into local networks, accessing infrastructure, and understanding new regulatory systems.
Bridgehead is delivered via a network of over 45 business “catalyser” organisations across Europe, for example the NHS Academic Health Science Network. EIT Health is actively seeking Ireland-based catalysers to operate within the network to avail of the benefits of international collaboration.
Joining 15 other companies this year on the Start-Ups Meet Healthcare Providers programme is Akara Robotics, a Trinity College Dublin spin-out. Akara has built a fully autonomous UV disinfection robot, which reduces turnaround times for clinical settings. The programme will grant Akara direct access to key European stakeholders to test its solution at Tartu University Hospital in Estonia, helping the team fine-tune their cutting-edge innovation.
BioXplor, which has developed an AI-driven data analytics platform to collect real world evidence on cancer, has been accepted onto EIT Health’s Wild Card programme. Wild Card tackles a new challenge each year and, in 2022, teams are tasked with finding solutions in the early detection of cancer, or mental health before pitching their ideas to a panel of industry leaders. Programme participants could potentially secure up to €1.5M in European funding to bring their solution to market.
“The whole team at BioXplor is delighted to join Wild Card. I think we can deliver an amazing solution for prostate cancer patients,” said BioXplor CEO, Anna O’Leary.
Irish health innovation businesses, such as BioXplor, will also have a spotlight at the upcoming EIT Health Summit taking place in Stockholm this week (24 – 25 May). Luminate Medical, which has developed a novel device to prevent hair loss during chemotherapy, will participate in the event’s Catapult competition for a €40,000 cash prize.
Phase-two EIT Health programmes remain open for applications until 27th June, for example the Interseed, MedTech, and Healthy and Active Ageing bootcamps.
