Grants, funding rounds and expansion plans – Ireland’s medtech sector is breaking records and setting the ‘gold standard’.
By all means, Ireland’s medtech industry is booming – with support from the Government and other groups, alongside a strong university-to-industry pipeline that keeps new talent flowing. The country exports around €15bn worth of medtech products annually to more than 100 international destinations.
Even the medtech start-up scene here is the envy of the world when it comes to early-stage funding, according to serial medtech founder and educator Rush Bartlett – despite the glaring funding gap scale-up firms in the country face.
Healthcare is a strong category with innovative start-ups emerging from across counties. In honour of Future Health month, SiliconRepublic.com has put together a list of strong players developing new medtech solutions.
Aerska
The young biotech emerged from stealth with a $21m round last October, bagging another $39m in a Series A raise in February led by EQT Dementia Fund and Age1. Aerska also got a mention on Tracxn’s ‘Soonicorn’ list of start-ups likely to reach the coveted ‘unicorn’ status.
The Dublin-headquartered company – co-founded by Jack O’Meara alongside David Hardwicke and Stu Milstein – is using brain shuttle technology to develop RNA medicines for central nervous system diseases.
It aims to leverage data science to integrate genetic, biomarker and patient data with the aim of bringing precision medicine to neurology – first starting with programmes in genetic forms of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
Amply
This Belfast-based company is using its own AI-driven drug discovery engine to fight aggressive cancers, such as triple-negative breast cancer, and drug-resistant pathogens.
Amply is a spin-out of Queen’s University Belfast and was founded by Dr Ben Thomas, Dermot Tierney and Prof Chris Creevey. Last May, it raised $1.75m led by Twin Path Ventures – a specialist AI investor – for its drug discovery platform, which followed a £1.4m raise from 2024.
The company said that its drug discovery platform analyses biological molecules, identifies potential treatment targets and bio-prints real molecules that can be quickly tested and improved in the lab.
Coroflo
This Dublin start-up made history at CES this year by bagging four awards for its breastfeeding monitor – the highest number of wins for one product at a CES show.
Founded by Rosanne Longmore, Jamie Travers and Helen Barry in 2017, Coroflo is an Enterprise Ireland high-potential start-up backed by the likes of Brian Caulfield of Scale Ireland and Shemas Eivers of the Boole Syndicate.
Coroflo’s flagship product – Coro – is a standard silicone nipple shield containing a patented microflow metre that allows mothers to keep track of exactly how much breastmilk their baby is consuming. Information is collected by Coro while the baby is breastfeeding, and this real-time data is sent to a smartphone app created by Coroflo.
CrannMed
Galway medical device manufacturer CrannMed recently won a €12.5m accelerator grant from the European Innovation Council to develop a chronic inflammatory pain therapy.
Its product, the ‘SakuraBead’ is a “resorbable embolic microsphere”, which works by stopping blood flow to the administrated inflamed site for a short period to reset the inflammatory process. The device is under evaluation for commercial approval in the US and EU. Commercial sales are expected to begin by the end of the year.
The company also received €6.6m under the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF) programme for a joint health-tech project that it’s co-leading with the University of Galway, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Salaso Health Solutions.
Fortis Medical
Also from Galway, this Spiddal-based medtech secured €2.1m from the DTIF last October to develop a wearable device to help people suffering from gait problems after a stroke.
University of Galway spin-out Fortis Medical is now leading a consortium that includes RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences and Smart Electronics to further develop its ‘CueStim-Stroke’ device.
The medtech has designed the new product to provide home-based rehabilitation support for patients while also providing clinicians with real-time data on patient progress.
Fortis was founded in 2024, with Gearóid Ó Laighin retiring as professor of electronic engineering to take up the role of chief scientific officer in the new company.
Lia Eyecare
Last year, Lia Eyecare bagged a win at the Medical Device Development Centre competition hosted by the University of Massachusetts, winning $25,000 for its dry eye remedy ‘Nightleaf’, a headband that restores natural hydration to the eyes while sleeping.
The drop-free and drug-free device uses thermal modulation to regulate tear film production, which also supports the body’s own natural hydration mechanisms.
“We’re addressing a long-ignored but critical gap in the treatment of overnight dry eye disease, a condition that disrupts the sleep and quality of life of millions worldwide,” co-founder and CEO Breda O’Regan told SiliconRepublic.com in an interview. Lia was founded in 2021 by O’Regan and Sinéad Buckley.
Marama Labs
Marama Labs made a splash last November after being crowned the ‘most impressive deep-tech pioneer in Europe’ at the Deep Tech Demo Day.
The start-up had just launched its CloudSpec instrument for nanomedicine development a few months prior, which CEO Dr Brendan Darby said could set the “new gold standard” for spectroscopy devices.
CloudSpec develops on existing UV-vis spectrophotometers, which, put simply, analyse the chemical composition of liquids based on how they absorb light.
Traditional spectrophotometers, however, cannot be used to inspect cloudy liquids. CloudSpec tackles this by placing samples in a highly reflective spherical chamber, then detecting and eliminating the scattered light’s effects. According to Marama Labs, their device cuts down chemical measurement time from two hours to a mere 15 seconds.
The medtech, dually based in New Zealand and Ireland, was founded by Darby, Prof Eric Le Ru and Dr Matthias Meyer in 2019.
Meta-Flux
This Dublin-based biotech raised €1.8m in October for its AI-powered platform designed to conduct disease simulations in drug development. The round received support from senior executives from Pfizer, Merck and Gilead Sciences, along with tech leaders from Google, Amazon and Indeed.
It takes approximately $2bn on average for a successful drug to hit the market, CEO and immunologist Lee Sherlock told SiliconRepublic.com. But only around one in 100,000 drugs actually get through the entire funnel and successfully reach patients.
“The goal isn’t that we get more drugs to market – it’s that we get more accuracy on the drugs that we do bring to market,” he said. Meta-Flux was founded in 2021 by Sherlock and Brendan Martin. In its early pilot runs, the company successfully identified novel biomarkers and flagged preclinical risks, it said.
SymPhysis Medical
Galway’s SymPhysis Medical bagged $1.25m grant from last November to support the regulatory clearance for its ‘Releaze Drainage System’ in the US, right as it planned for a strong market launch in the country later this year.
Founded in 2018 by Tim Jones and Dr Michelle Tierney, SymPhysis is develops palliative care solutions for patients in the end stages of illness.
The funding is expected to help grow SymPhysis’ product – an at-home solution for managing malignant pleural effusion in late-stage cancer patients. Additionally, it will also enable the company to establish its first US base in Rhode Island.
The company’s headquarters will remain in Galway, with Jones stating in a press release: “Rhode Island gives us a bridge into the US market, not a replacement for what we are doing here.”
Tympany Medical
This Galway-based medtech is behind a new surgical device called Solascope, a variable angle and self-cleaning endoscopic tool.
The tool consists of a lightweight reusable handle combined with detachable single-use, sterile probe tips. “Our solution offers better visibility, improved ergonomics for surgeons and more sustainable practice,” said CEO Michael Gilmore. The start-up was founded in 2018 by Rory O’Callaghan and Elizabeth McGloughlin.
Last year, it opened €600,000 crowdfunding round to scale Solascope. The round has raised nearly €100,000 directly via the site Crowdcube.
The start-up was founded in 2018 by Rory O’Callaghan and Elizabeth McGloughlin. McGloughlin won the third spot in the 2025 European Institute of Innovation and Technology Women Leadership category at last year’s European Prize for Women Innovators.
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