IRISH MED-TECH STARTUP Fire1 has raised €40 million to bankroll the next phase of its research and development.
Foundry Innovation & Research 1, also known as Fire1, was founded nearly five years ago and is developing a new heart monitoring device.
Speaking in 2016 about its research and development work, the firm told Fora it was in “stealth mode”. But the company has since revealed that it is in the middle of developing a new device that will help remotely monitor people prone to heart failure.
Speaking about the cash injection, Fire1 chief executive Conor Hanley said the funding will speed up the firm’s research into the heart device.
He added that Fire1′s device will help manage patients at home and through this regular monitoring, reduce hospitalisation due to heart failure.
This series C round of investment into the company has come nearly two years after the firm raised its last cash pile of €6.5 million.
The latest funding round was led by a new investor into the firm, Gilde Healthcare, while Gimv and Seventure were also fresh backers.
Gilde Healthcare is major player in the med-tech investment scene and has exited a number of firms sold in deals worth hundreds of millions of euro.
All existing investors in the company, including Lightstone Ventures, Medtronic and New Enterprise Associates – one of the world’s largest biotech venture capital firms – also backed the startup again.
This funding will bring the company closer to its commercialisation phase, according to Hanley.
He said some of the funds raised will also be used to double the Irish team to a base of 30 staff by the end of the year.
Fire1 is one of a number of medical-device developers part of The Foundry, a US-based incubator for med-tech startups that was founded in 1998.
The firm currently conducts its research out of two offices based at Dublin colleges UCD and DCU.
Written by Killian Woods and posted on Fora.ie
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