MetHealth CEO Dr Fiona McGillicuddy won the runner-up award.
Substrato Medical, a spin-out from the RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences won yesterday’s (6 May) Enterprise Ireland (EI) entry competition. Founder and chief technology officer, Maeve McCarthy, now has the opportunity to participate in the European market access program.
Describing his company, McCarthy says Substrato is “redefining” oxygen therapy for tissue repair, especially for venous leg ulcers. Substrato plans to release later this year.
Before starting his own business, McCarthy spent nearly 10 years at Stryker, serving as a program manager in his last role.
“We’re starting that journey now to talk to investors and try to get ourselves out there,” he told SiliconRepublic.com.
Substrato’s win as in the event shows the “progress so far [of] technology of the Tissue Engineering Research Group (TERG) at RCSI,” added McCarthy. “That has been very beneficial to us over the years with our early stage development.” TERG is developing new ways to treat spinal cord injuries.
This year, eight companies took part in a live spinout showcase competition at the EI First Day event at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. The exhibition highlights innovative companies emerging from research activities in Ireland’s third-level institutions.
Participating companies include University College Dublin (UCD) spin-outs MicroJect Bio and NanoFormiX; OcuHealth, a joint project of UCD and South East Technological University; and Narrative, a spin out of Dublin City University.
MetHealth, a UCD spin-out that develops recovery strategies for people suffering from obesity, received the runner-up award. The CEO of this company, Dr. Fiona McGillicuddy, told SiliconRepublic.com that the business stems from her research to identify people with obesity.
“That made me think there might be something special about what we were measuring,” he explained. “We are developing the expertise in that with the help of Enterprise Ireland funding.
“It’s nice to see some people agree that this is important, that it is [a] the commercial opportunity, that it can have an impact…it will give me the confidence to take that opportunity and enter the next stage of sales.”
Jim Woulfe, chairman of Enterprise Ireland, said: “This is not just a competition, but a platform that connects great research, great innovators and partners to bring solutions to market.”
Last year, the University of Limerick deep-tech Oscil took the top prize at the First EI Day. The company provides real-time powder processing data analysis to address manufacturing process issues and overall end product performance.
Yesterday, EI also presented its annual report detailing the support it has provided at the beginning of each year. The government agency said it spent around 33 million euros last year to support 198 new startups in the country.
The investment marked a 19.2pc jump from 2024, when the agency supported 157 home grown people with €27.6m.
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